• Peculiar orbital characteristics of Earth quasi-satellite 469219 Kamo`oalewa: implications for the Yarkovsky detection and orbital uncertainty propagation

    分类: 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 分类: 其他 提交时间: 2024-06-08

    摘要: 469219 Kamo`oalewa is selected as one of the primary targets of Tianwen-2 mission, which is currently believed to be the most stable quasi-satellite of Earth. Here we derive a weak detection of the Yarkovsky effect for Kamo`oalewa, giving $A_2 = -1.075 pm0.447 times 10^{-13} rm{au/d}^2$, with the available ground-based optical observations from Minor Planet Center and a relatively conservative weighting scheme. Due to the quasi-satellite resonance with Earth, we show that the detection of Yarkovsky effect by orbital fitting with astrometric observations becomes difficult as its orbital drift shows a slow oscillatory growth resulting from the Yarkovsky effect. In addition, we extensively explore the characteristics of orbital uncertainty propagation and find that the positional uncertainty mainly arises from the geocentric radial direction in 2010-2020, and then concentrates in the heliocentric transverse direction in 2020-2030. Furthermore, the heliocentric transverse uncertainty is clearly monthly dependent, which can arrive at a minimum around January and a maximum around July as the orbit moves towards the leading and trailing edges, respectively, in 2025-2027. Finally, we investigate a long-term uncertainty propagation in the quasi-satellite regime, implying that the quasi-satellite resonance with Earth may play a crucial role in constraining the increase of uncertainty over time. Such interesting feature further implies that the orbital precision of Kamo`oalewa is relatively stable at its quasi-satellite phase, which may also be true for other quasi-satellites of Earth.

  • PyMsOfa: A Python Package for the Standards of Fundamental Astronomy (SOFA) Service

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2024-06-08

    摘要: The Standards of Fundamental Astronomy (SOFA) is a service provided by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that offers algorithms and software for astronomical calculations, which was released in two versions by FORTRAN 77 and ANSI C, respectively. In this work, we implement the python package PyMsOfa for SOFA service by three ways: (1) a python wrapper package based on a foreign function library for Python (ctypes), (2) a python wrapper package with the foreign function interface for Python calling C code (cffi), and (3) a python package directly written in pure python codes from SOFA subroutines. The package PyMsOfa has fully implemented 247 functions of the original SOFA routines. In addition, PyMsOfa is also extensively examined, which is exactly consistent with those test examples given by the original SOFA. This python package can be suitable to not only the astrometric detection of habitable planets of the Closeby Habitable Exoplanet Survey (CHES) mission (Ji et al. 2022), but also for the frontiers themes of black holes and dark matter related to astrometric calculations and other fields. The source codes are available via https://github.com/CHES2023/PyMsOfa.

  • Evolution of the Planetary Obliquity: The Eccentric Kozai-Lidov Mechanism Coupled with Tide

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2024-06-03

    摘要: The planetary obliquity plays a significant role in determining physical properties of planetary surfaces and climate. As direct detection is constrained due to the present observation accuracy, kinetic theories are helpful to predict the evolution of the planetary obliquity. Here the coupling effect between the eccentric Kozai-Lidov (EKL) effect and the equilibrium tide is extensively investigated, the planetary obliquity performs to follow two kinds of secular evolution paths, based on the conservation of total angular momentum. The equilibrium timescale of the planetary obliquity $t_{ mathrm{eq}}$ varies along with $r_{t}$, which is defined as the initial timescale ratio of the tidal dissipation and secular perturbation. We numerically derive the linear relationship between $t_{ mathrm{eq}}$ and $r_{t}$ with the maximum likelihood method. The spin-axis orientation of S-type terrestrials orbiting M-dwarfs reverses over $90^ circ$ when $r_{t} > 100$, then enter the quasi-equilibrium state between $40^ circ$ and $60^ circ$, while the maximum obliquity can reach $130^ circ$ when $r_{t} > 10^4 $. Numerical simulations show that the maximum obliquity increases with the semi-major axis ratio $a_1$/$a_2$, but is not so sensitive to the eccentricity $e_2$. The likelihood of obliquity flip for S-type terrestrials in general systems with $a_2 < 45$ AU is closely related to $m_1$. The observed potential oblique S-type planets HD 42936 b, GJ 86 Ab and $ tau$ Boot Ab are explored to have a great possibility to be head-down over the secular evolution of spin.