Skip to main content

Stability of Outer Planetary Orbits Around Binary Stars: A Comparison of Hill’s and Laplace’s Stability Criteria

  • Conference paper
Qualitative and Quantitative Behaviour of Planetary Systems
  • 200 Accesses

Abstract

A comparison is made between the stability criteria of Hill and that of Laplace to determine the stability of outer planetary orbits encircling binary stars. The restricted, analytically determined results of Hill’s method by Szebehely and co-workers and the general, numerically integrated results of Laplace’s method by Graziani and Black are compared for varying values of the mass parameter μ = m2/(m1 + m2). For 0 ≤ μ ≤ 0.15, the closest orbit (lower limit of radius) an outer planet in a binary system can have and still remain stable is determined by Hill’s stability criterion. For μ > 0.15, the critical radius is determined by Laplace’s stability criterion. It appears that the Graziani-Black stability criterion describes the critical orbit within a few percent for all values of μ.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Benest, D.: 1988: “Planetary Orbits in the Elliptic Restricted Problem,” Astronomy and Astrophysics, 206, 143–146, See also 13, p. 157, (1971); 32, p. 39, (1974); 45, p. 353, (1975) and 53, p. 231, (1976).

    Google Scholar 

  • Black, D. C.: 1982, “A Simple Criterion for Determining the Dynamical Stability of Three-Body Systems”, The Astronomical Journal, 87, 1333–1337.

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Dvorak, R.: 1984, “Numerical Experiments on Planetary Orbits in Double Stars”, Celest. Mech., 34, 369–378. See also Astronomy and Astrophysics,167, 379, (1986); Bull. MS, 842, (1986), with Froeschlé, C.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graziani, F. and Black, D. C.: 1981, “Orbital Stability Constraints on the Nature of Planetary Systems”, The Astrophysical Journal, 251, 337–341.

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Froeschlé, C.: 1971, Astrophysics and Space Science, 37, 87.

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Hadjidemetriou, J.: 1976, “Families of Periodic Planetary Type Orbits in the Three-Body Problem and their Stability”, Astrophysics and Space Science, 40, 201–224.

    Article  MathSciNet  ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, G. W.: 1878, “Researches in the Lunar Theory,” Am. J. Math., 1, pp. 5, 129 and 245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pendelton, Y. J. and Black, D. C.: 1983, “Further Studies on Criteria for the Onset of Dynamical Instability in General Three-Body Systems,” The Astronomical Journal, 88, 1415–1419.

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Szebehely, V.: 1967, Theory of Orbits, Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Szebehely, V.: 1980, “Stability of Planetary Orbits in Binary Systems”, Celest. Mech., 22, 7–12.

    Article  ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Szebehely, V. and McKenzie, R.: 1981, “Stability of Outer Planetary Systems”, Celest. Mech., 23, 3–7.

    Article  ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Szebehely, V.: 1984, “Review of Concepts of Stability”, Celest. Mech., 34, 49–64.

    Article  MathSciNet  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this paper

Cite this paper

Kubala, A., Black, D., Szebehely, V. (1993). Stability of Outer Planetary Orbits Around Binary Stars: A Comparison of Hill’s and Laplace’s Stability Criteria. In: Dvorak, R., Henrard, J. (eds) Qualitative and Quantitative Behaviour of Planetary Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2030-2_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2030-2_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4898-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-2030-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics