Secular resonances with Ceres and Vesta

TL;DR

This paper investigates how secular resonances with Ceres and Vesta influence the orbital evolution of main-belt asteroids, revealing their significance comparable to giant planet resonances and their impact on asteroid family dynamics.

Contribution

It identifies the locations of secular resonances with Ceres and Vesta and demonstrates their importance in asteroid orbital evolution and family post-impact dynamics.

Findings

Secular resonances with Ceres and Vesta can be as strong as those with giant planets.

These resonances significantly affect the orbital evolution of some main-belt asteroids.

Asteroid families crossing these resonances show notable post-impact dynamical changes.

Abstract

In this work we explore dynamical perturbations induced by the massive asteroids Ceres and Vesta on main-belt asteroids through secular resonances. First we determine the location of the linear secular resonances with Ceres and Vesta in the main belt, using a purely numerical technique. Then we use a set of numerical simulations of fictitious asteroids to investigate the importance of these secular resonances in the orbital evolution of main-belt asteroids. We found, evaluating the magnitude of the perturbations in the proper elements of the test particles, that in some cases the strength of these secular resonances is comparable to that of known non-linear secular resonances with the giant planets. Finally we explore the asteroid families that are crossed by the secular resonances we studied, and identified several cases where the latter seem to play an important role in their post-impact evolution.