The gravitational escape/capture of planetary satellites

Abstract

The stability and capture regions for retrograde jovicentric satellites are numerically explored and plotted in Henon's diagram (Henon 1970) in the restricted three-body problem. The minor bodies with Jacobian constants around 2.998 have the largest probability of temporary capture by Jupiter, the preferred heliocentric eccentricities for temporary capture lying between 0.1 and 0.2; the preferred jovicentric eccentricities after capture lie between 0.3 and 0.5. These regions are also explored in the elliptic restricted three-body problem. A brief discussion is given of the geometry and dynamics of escape/capture, especially for retrograde orbits. Revised formulae are given for limiting radii of planetary and stellar systems.