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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 4.

Similar to Figure 3, but with Thalassa shifted to a slightly larger semimajor axis, outside of the resonance with Naiad. The left-hand simulations did not include Despina, while the right-hand one did. The top panels show the semimajor axis of Thalassa (green) as well as the location of the currently active 69:73 MMR with Naiad (purple) and (in the right-hand plot) the 29:27 resonance with Despina (cyan; the resonant argument is 29λD − 27λθ − 2Ωθ). The bottom panels show the resonant argument 73λθ − 69λν − 4Ων of the Naiad–Thalassa 73:69 resonance. The two-body simulations shows a simple resonance crossing during which the resonant argument avoids the libration center. In the three-body simulation there is also no permanent capture into any resonance, but chaotic interactions between three moons lead to temporary periods of libration in resonance for Naiad and Thalassa.

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