Spin orbit resonance cascade via core shell model. Application to Mercury and Ganymede

TL;DR

This paper presents a core-shell model explaining the spin-orbit resonance cascade in celestial bodies like Mercury and Ganymede, highlighting the roles of viscous and tidal dissipation in resonance capture and escape.

Contribution

It introduces a two-layer core-shell model with dissipation mechanisms to explain the dynamics of spin-orbit resonance capture and evolution.

Findings

Different resonance time scales for crust and core due to viscous coupling

Tidal dissipation leads to resonance escape by reducing eccentricity

System ultimately stabilizes in a 1:1 spin-orbit resonance

Abstract

We discuss a model describing the spin orbit resonance cascade. We assume that the primary has a two-layer (core-shell) structure: it is composed by a thin solid crust and an inner and heavier solid core that are interacting due to the presence of a fluid interface. We assume two sources of dissipation: a viscous one, depending on the relative angular velocity between core and crust and a tidal one, smaller than the first, due to the viscoelastic structure of the core. We show how these two sources of dissipation are needful for the capture in spin-orbit resonance. The crust and the core fall in resonance with different time scales if the viscous coupling between them is big enough. Finally, the tidal dissipation of the viscoelastic core, decreasing the eccentricity, brings the system out of the resonance in a third very long time scale. This mechanism of entry and exit from resonance ends in the $1:1$ stable state.