Impact of a moon on the evolution of a planet's obliquity: a non-resonant case

TL;DR

This study analyzes how an exo-Moon influences the axial tilt stability of a hypothetical exo-Earth, combining analytical and numerical methods to identify conditions that stabilize or destabilize the planet's obliquity.

Contribution

The paper provides a general analytical framework and numerical analysis for understanding the stabilizing or destabilizing effects of an exo-Moon on a planet's obliquity in non-resonant systems.

Findings

Identified classes of systems where the exo-Moon stabilizes obliquity.

Identified classes of systems where the exo-Moon destabilizes obliquity.

Numerical results show how orbital geometry affects obliquity variation.

Abstract

We investigate how the variation of the obliquity (the axial tilt) of a hypothetical exo-Earth is effected by the presence of a satellite, an exo-Moon. Namely, we study analytically and numerically how the range of obliquity of the exo-Earth changes if an exo-Moon is added to a system comprised of exo-Sun, exo-Earth and exo-planets. We say that the impact of the exo-Moon is stabilising if upon the addition of the exo-Moon the range of obliquity decreases, while we call the impact destabilising if the range increases as the exo-Moon is added to the system. The problem is considered in a general setup. The exo-Earth is assumed to be rigid, axially symmetric and almost spherical, the difference between the largest and the smallest principal moments of inertia being a small parameter of the problem. Assuming the orbits of the celestial bodies to be quasiperiodic, we apply time averaging to study rotation of the exo-Earth at times large compared to the respective periods. Non-resonant frequencies are assumed. We identify a class of systems for which we prove analytically that the impact of the exo-Moon is stabilising and a class where it is destabilising. We also investigate numerically how the impact of the exo-Moon in a particular system comprised of a star and two planets varies on modifying the geometry of the orbits of the exo-Moon and the second planet and the initial obliquity.