Revisiting the distributions of Jupiter's irregular moons: II. orbital characteristics

TL;DR

This study statistically analyzes the orbital distributions of Jupiter's irregular moons, identifying specific distribution laws that can aid in understanding and predicting moon characteristics and discovering new moons.

Contribution

It verifies suitable statistical distributions for orbital parameters of Jupiter's irregular moons and demonstrates their consistency with theoretical models.

Findings

Semi-major axis, mean inclination, and orbital period follow Stable distributions.

Theoretical and observed distributions are in good agreement.

Distribution laws can assist in studying and predicting moon features.

Abstract

This paper statistically describes the orbital distribution laws of Jupiter's irregular moons, most of which are members of the Ananke, Carme and Pasiphae groups. By comparing 19 known continuous distributions, it is verified that suitable distribution functions exist to describe the orbital distributions of these natural satellites. For each distribution type, interval estimation is used to estimate the corresponding parameter values. At a given significance level, a one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov non-parametric test is applied to verify the specified distribution, and we often select the one with the largest $p$-value. The results show that the semi-major axis, mean inclination and orbital period of the moons in the Ananke group and Carme group obey Stable distributions. In addition, according to Kepler's third law of planetary motion and by comparing the theoretically calculated best-fitting cumulative distribution function (CDF) with the observed CDF, we demonstrate that the theoretical distribution is in good agreement with the empirical distribution. Therefore, these characteristics of Jupiter's irregular moons are indeed very likely to follow some specific distribution laws, and it will be possible to use these laws to help study certain features of poorly investigated moons or even predict undiscovered ones.