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Are Thalassa and Despina in Resonance Lock with Neptune’s Oscillations?

  • Authors: Matija Ćuk, Harrison F. Agrusa, Marina Brozović, Matthew M. Hedman

Matija Ćuk et al 2026 The Astronomical Journal 171 .

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 3.

A simulation of the future evolution of the orbits of Naiad, Thalassa, and Despina assuming equilibrium tides within Neptune with a constant QN/k2N = 3.3 × 104. The top panel shows the semimajor axis of Thalassa (green) as well as the location of the currently active 69:73 MMR with Naiad (purple; approximately (73/69)2/3aν) and the 29:27 resonance with Despina (cyan; approximately (27/29)2/3aD, with a resonant argument of 29λD − 27λθ − 2Ωθ). The bottom panel shows the resonant argument 73λθ − 69λν − 4Ων of the Naiad–Thalassa 73:69 resonance. The Naiad–Thalassa resonance is perturbed about 430 kyr into the simulation due to Despina’s resonant perturbations, and finally breaks around 800 kyr.

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