太阳系“新家谱”

一、行星成员包括水星、金星、地球、火星、木星、土星、天王星和海王星。定义:围绕太阳运转,自身引力足以克服其刚体力而使天体呈圆球状,并且能够清11除其轨道附近其他物体的天体。二、矮行星成员包括冥王星和谷神星等。定义:与行星同样具有足够的质量,呈圆球状,但不能清除其轨道附近其他物体的天体。三、太阳系小天体定义:围绕太阳运转但不符合行星和矮行星条件的物体。太阳系“新家谱”     

对Kuiper带中3:2共振天体的轨道根数的分析研究

在太阳系最外层的Kuiper带中，有许多天体处于海王星3：2平运动共振中．对这些天体的主要轨道根数的观测数据分析发现，与其它Kuiper带天体比较，它们普遍具有高偏心率、高倾角和相对稳定的轨道．     

全面开展太阳系探测的新时代

太阳系是由太阳、行星及其卫星、矮行星、小行星、彗星和行星际物质组成的一个天体系统.自古以来,人们只能凭裸眼观察来了解天体现象;16世纪初伽利略发明望远镜后,开启了望远镜观测时代.观测波段逐渐覆盖了γ射线、X射线乃至可见光、红外和无线电波的整个电磁波谱,人类对太阳系的了解也得以逐渐深化.人类对太阳系的探测始于20世纪50年代末,从探测月球开始,逐渐发展到对地球邻近行星(火星与金星)、其他行星、各类小天体以及太阳和行星际空间太阳风的探测.人类的空问探测,由近至远,由易到难,经历了近半个世纪,实现了对太阳系各层次天体和太阳系空间的253次探测.     

55Cancri系中类海王星行星的轨道稳定性

55 Cancri系是已发现的太阳系外众多行星系中的一个,其中心天体类似太阳,周围有4颗巨行星.最内部的行星e是2004年新发现的,质量与海王星类似,但到中心天体的距离却仅为水星到太阳的1/10.这类行星在外太阳系具有典型性.为了探索该类行星的轨道稳定性问题,本文对行星e进行了106年的轨道演化数值模拟.结果表明:除了与相邻行星的2:11共振点外,行星e半长径在小于0.0388AU范围内的轨道都是稳定的.该结果意味着,在类太阳恒星的周围,类海王星质量的行星可以稳定在近距离的轨道上.     

中学物理新大纲中的几个天体问题

一、海王星与冥王星是怎样发现的1. 太阳系家族:在太阳周围,有九个较大的行星(小行星数目较多)围绕着太阳运转。它们是:水星、金星、地球、火星、木星、土星、天王星、海王星和冥王星。如图(一)所示。(最近资料表明土星和天王星之间有可能存在第十颗大行星)。所有这些行星,都沿着同一方向(即所谓顺向)围绕太阳运动,其轨道成椭圆形,极近于圆。其质量大小不一,但所有行星的质量总共只有太     

带环的矮行星

<正>此前,太阳系内只有4颗气态行星(外行星)有环状结构,分别是木星、土星、天王星和海王星。如今,天文学家们又发现,在海王星轨道之外的一颗矮行星——妊神星,也有环状带。该结果已于2017年10月11日发表在Nature上。在太阳系外沿有很多小型天体。渐渐地,人们意识到这些天体并非都是又小又黯淡,某些天体的体积甚至可与冥王星相当。于是,在2006年,天文学家定义了一类新的行星——矮行星。妊神星是继冥王星、谷神星、阋神星、鸟神星之后发现的第5颗矮行星。其形状宛如橄榄,自转速度极快,有两颗卫星,一直以来格外吸引天文学家的目光。"环状带的形成原因实在太多了,有可能是在与其他天体碰撞时产生的,也可能是妊神星本身的自转速度太快造成     

水星,我们没有忘记你

正以前的说法是,太阳系内有九大行星。因冥王星体积小、质量小等原因,2006年,国际天文学联合会取消它作为太阳系内行星的资格。太阳系内八大行星分别是水星、金星、地球、火星、木星、土星、天王星和海王星。它们围着太阳转,看似相差无几,实则各有特色,是不是很有趣?今天,我先介绍水星。它是八大行星中最小的、离太阳最近的行星。     

科学家首次发现十字交叉轨道

<正>据国外媒体报道,一颗"超级木星"(相似于木星)和其他行星,围绕其所在星系的恒星旋转,但其轨道面都明显发生倾斜。这种现象,是天文学家首次发现。在人类所在的太阳系中,所有行星轨道面都基本与太阳赤道面持平。而最新数据显示,有三颗"超级木星"围绕恒星     

太阳系里怪异的小行星

美国宇航局发射的"黎明"号小行星探测器目前正在奔赴火星和木星之间的小行星带,探测两颗人类以前从未尝试接触的天体——谷神星和灶神星,那将是迄今为止人类最为直观地观测小行星。大部分小行星都栖身在位于火星和木星之间的主小行星带里,其他小行星则围绕比地球距离太阳更近的轨道运行,不过它们中有很多都与行星拥有共同轨道。并非所有小行星都会老老实实呆在原处:太阳系里的一些小行星的轨道与行星轨道呈十字交叉。     

小天体探测序列图像自主相对导航系统可观测性分析

小天体探测对探索宇宙起源、解决地球资源问题具有重要意义,研发小天体探测器及实施小天体探测已成为各国未来发展的重点.受地面测控网指令时延的影响,小天体探测器需自主获取小天体的位置、速度信息,即具备自主相对导航的能力,基于序列图像的自主相对导航系统不仅可提供包含小天体运动信息的角度观测量,还具有低成本、低功耗的优点,是一种理想的小天体探测自主相对导航方法,是目前研究的热点.可观测性分析可评估导航系统的观测能力是研究导航系统的基础.本文针对小天体探测序列图像自主相对导航系统非线性带来的可观测性分析问题,基于微分几何理论,推导了系统0至2阶李导数,建立了系统可观测性矩阵,基于秩判据分析了典型小天体探测轨道流形下序列图像自主相对导航系统的局部弱可观测性.分析结果表明,仅依靠序列图像小天体探测器可完备估计小天体运动状态.此外,本文提出了序列图像自主相对导航系统的可观测度量化方法,并分析了相对轨道流形变化对可观测度的影响,相关结论可指导小天体探测器轨道设计,具有一定的工程实用价值.     

A low density of 0.8 g cm(-3) for the Trojan binary asteroid 617 Patroclus

The Trojan population consists of two swarms of asteroids following the same orbit as Jupiter and located at the L4 and L5 stable Lagrange points of the Jupiter-Sun system (leading and following Jupiter by 60 degrees ). The asteroid 617 Patroclus is the only known binary Trojan. The orbit of this double system was hitherto unknown. Here we report that the components, separated by 680 km, move around the system's centre of mass, describing a roughly circular orbit. Using this orbital information, combined with thermal measurements to estimate the size of the components, we derive a very low density of 0.8(- 0.1)+0.2 g cm(-3). The components of 617 Patroclus are therefore very porous or composed mostly of water ice, suggesting that they could have been formed in the outer part of the Solar System.     

Earth's Trojan asteroid

It was realized in 1772 that small bodies can stably share the same orbit as a planet if they remain near 'triangular points' 60° ahead of or behind it in the orbit. Such 'Trojan asteroids' have been found co-orbiting with Jupiter, Mars and Neptune. They have not hitherto been found associated with Earth, where the viewing geometry poses difficulties for their detection, although other kinds of co-orbital asteroid (horseshoe orbiters and quasi-satellites) have been observed. Here we report an archival search of infrared data for possible Earth Trojans, producing the candidate 2010 TK(7). We subsequently made optical observations which established that 2010 TK(7) is a Trojan companion of Earth, librating around the leading Lagrange triangular point, L(4). Its orbit is stable over at least ten thousand years.     

Extreme collisions between planetesimals as the origin of warm dust around a Sun-like star

The slow but persistent collisions between asteroids in our Solar System generate a tenuous cloud of dust known as the zodiacal light (because of the light the dust reflects). In the young Solar System, such collisions were more common and the dust production rate should have been many times larger. Yet copious dust in the zodiacal region around stars much younger than the Sun has rarely been found. Dust is known to orbit around several hundred main-sequence stars, but this dust is cold and comes from a Kuiper-belt analogous region out beyond the orbit of Neptune. Despite many searches, only a few main-sequence stars reveal warm (> 120 K) dust analogous to zodiacal dust near the Earth. Signs of planet formation (in the form of collisions between bodies) in the regions of stars corresponding to the orbits of the terrestrial planets in our Solar System have therefore been elusive. Here we report an exceptionally large amount of warm, small, silicate dust particles around the solar-type star BD+20,307 (HIP 8920, SAO 75016). The composition and quantity of dust could be explained by recent frequent or huge collisions between asteroids or other 'planetesimals' whose orbits are being perturbed by a nearby planet.     

Chaotic capture of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids in the early Solar System

Jupiter's Trojans are asteroids that follow essentially the same orbit as Jupiter, but lead or trail the planet by an angular distance of approximately 60 degrees (co-orbital motion). They are hypothesized to be planetesimals that formed near Jupiter and were captured onto their current orbits while Jupiter was growing, possibly with the help of gas drag and/or collisions. This idea, however, cannot explain some basic properties of the Trojan population, in particular its broad orbital inclination distribution, which ranges up to approximately 40 degrees (ref. 8). Here we show that the Trojans could have formed in more distant regions and been subsequently captured into co-orbital motion with Jupiter during the time when the giant planets migrated by removing neighbouring planetesimals. The capture was possible during a short period of time, just after Jupiter and Saturn crossed their mutual 1:2 resonance, when the dynamics of the Trojan region were completely chaotic. Our simulations of this process satisfactorily reproduce the orbital distribution of the Trojans and their total mass.     

Stellar encounters as the origin of distant Solar System objects in highly eccentric orbits

The Kuiper belt extends from the orbit of Neptune at 30 au to an abrupt outer edge about 50 au from the Sun. Beyond the edge is a sparse population of objects with large orbital eccentricities. Neptune shapes the dynamics of most Kuiper belt objects, but the recently discovered planet 2003 VB12 (Sedna) has an eccentric orbit with a perihelion distance of 70 au, far beyond Neptune's gravitational influence. Although influences from passing stars could have created the Kuiper belt's outer edge and could have scattered objects into large, eccentric orbits, no model currently explains the properties of Sedna. Here we show that a passing star probably scattered Sedna from the Kuiper belt into its observed orbit. The likelihood that a planet at 60-80 au can be scattered into Sedna's orbit is about 50 per cent; this estimate depends critically on the geometry of the fly-by. Even more interesting is the approximately 10 per cent chance that Sedna was captured from the outer disk of the passing star. Most captures have very high inclination orbits; detection of such objects would confirm the presence of extrasolar planets in our own Solar System.     

The binary Kuiper-belt object 1998 WW31

The recent discovery of a binary asteroid during a spacecraft fly-by generated keen interest, because the orbital parameters of binaries can provide measures of the masses, and mutual eclipses could allow us to determine individual sizes and bulk densities. Several binary near-Earth, main-belt and Trojan asteroids have subsequently been discovered. The Kuiper belt-the region of space extending from Neptune (at 30 astronomical units) to well over 100 AU and believed to be the source of new short-period comets-has become a fascinating new window onto the formation of our Solar System since the first member object, not counting Pluto, was discovered in 1992 (ref. 13). Here we report that the Kuiper-belt object 1998 WW31 is binary with a highly eccentric orbit (eccentricity e approximately 0.8) and a long period (about 570 days), very different from the Pluto/Charon system, which was hitherto the only previously known binary in the Kuiper belt. Assuming a density in the range of 1 to 2 g cm-3, the albedo of the binary components is between 0.05 and 0.08, close to the value of 0.04 generally assumed for Kuiper-belt objects.     

Discovery of five irregular moons of Neptune

Each giant planet of the Solar System has two main types of moons. 'Regular' moons are typically larger satellites with prograde, nearly circular orbits in the equatorial plane of their host planets at distances of several to tens of planetary radii. The 'irregular' satellites (which are typically smaller) have larger orbits with significant eccentricities and inclinations. Despite these common features, Neptune's irregular satellite system, hitherto thought to consist of Triton and Nereid, has appeared unusual. Triton is as large as Pluto and is postulated to have been captured from heliocentric orbit; it traces a circular but retrograde orbit at 14 planetary radii from Neptune. Nereid, which exhibits one of the largest satellite eccentricities, is believed to have been scattered from a regular satellite orbit to its present orbit during Triton's capture. Here we report the discovery of five irregular moons of Neptune, two with prograde and three with retrograde orbits. These exceedingly faint (apparent red magnitude m(R) = 24.2-25.4) moons, with diameters of 30 to 50 km, were presumably captured by Neptune.     

Differentiation of the asteroid Ceres as revealed by its shape

The accretion of bodies in the asteroid belt was halted nearly 4.6 billion years ago by the gravitational influence of the newly formed giant planet Jupiter. The asteroid belt therefore preserves a record of both this earliest epoch of Solar System formation and variation of conditions within the solar nebula. Spectral features in reflected sunlight indicate that some asteroids have experienced sufficient thermal evolution to differentiate into layered structures. The second most massive asteroid--4 Vesta--has differentiated to a crust, mantle and core. 1 Ceres, the largest and most massive asteroid, has in contrast been presumed to be homogeneous, in part because of its low density, low albedo and relatively featureless visible reflectance spectrum, similar to carbonaceous meteorites that have suffered minimal thermal processing. Here we show that Ceres has a shape and smoothness indicative of a gravitationally relaxed object. Its shape is significantly less flattened than that expected for a homogeneous object, but is consistent with a central mass concentration indicative of differentiation. Possible interior configurations include water-ice-rich mantles over a rocky core.     

The formation of Uranus and Neptune in the Jupiter-Saturn region of the Solar System

Planets are believed to have formed through the accumulation of a large number of small bodies. In the case of the gas-giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, they accreted a significant amount of gas directly from the protosolar nebula after accumulating solid cores of about 5-15 Earth masses. Such models, however, have been unable to produce the smaller ice giants Uranus and Neptune at their present locations, because in that region of the Solar System the small planetary bodies will have been more widely spaced, and less tightly bound gravitationally to the Sun. When applied to the current Jupiter-Saturn zone, a recent theory predicts that, in addition to the solid cores of Jupiter and Saturn, two or three other solid bodies of comparable mass are likely to have formed. Here we report the results of model calculations that demonstrate that such cores will have been gravitationally scattered outwards as Jupiter, and perhaps Saturn, accreted nebular gas. The orbits of these cores then evolve into orbits that resemble those of Uranus and Neptune, as a result of gravitational interactions with the small bodies in the outer disk of the protosolar nebula.     

A collisional family of icy objects in the Kuiper belt

The small bodies in the Solar System are thought to have been highly affected by collisions and erosion. In the asteroid belt, direct evidence of the effects of large collisions can be seen in the existence of separate families of asteroids--a family consists of many asteroids with similar orbits and, frequently, similar surface properties, with each family being the remnant of a single catastrophic impact. In the region beyond Neptune, in contrast, no collisionally created families have hitherto been found. The third largest known Kuiper belt object, 2003 EL61, however, is thought to have experienced a giant impact that created its multiple satellite system, stripped away much of an overlying ice mantle, and left it with a rapid rotation. Here we report the discovery of a family of Kuiper belt objects with surface properties and orbits that are nearly identical to those of 2003 EL61. This family appears to be fragments of the ejected ice mantle of 2003 EL61.