Capture in restricted four body problem

TL;DR

This paper investigates the capture process of irregular moons around Jovian planets within the restricted four body problem, analyzing mechanisms like collisions and gas drag, and finds retrograde capture more probable than prograde.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed study of capture mechanisms in the restricted four body problem, including numerical experiments and energetic criteria analysis.

Findings

Capture is more probable on retrograde orbits.

Encounter with regular satellites is more effective than binary asteroid flybys.

Numerical experiments support the energetic criteria of ballistic capture.

Abstract

A number of irregular moons of the Jovian planets have recently been discovered. Most adequate way of their origin is capture, but detailed mechanism is unknown. A few possibilities are discussed: collisions, gas drag, tidal destruction of a binary asteroid. In this paper the capture process in restricted four body problem (RFBP) is researched. The interaction with regular satellite can be studied by this way as well as binary asteroid destruction in Hill sphere of planet. The energetic criteria of ballistic capture are studied and some numerical experiments are developed. It is confirmed, that capture in four body problem is more probable on retrograde than on prograde orbit. In according with our results, encounter with regular satellites is more effective mechanism to create an irregular satellite population, than a binary asteroid flyby.