An analytical expansion of the disturbing function arising from direct planetary perturbations on the motion of satellites is derived. As a Fourier series, it allows the investigation of the secular effects of these direct ...

Low-altitude, near-polar orbits are very desirable for scientific missions to study the natural satellites of the planets of the Solar System, such as Europa, that is one of the natural satellites of Jupiter. The problem ...

The equations for the variations of the Keplerian elements of the orbit of a spacecraft perturbed by a third body are developed using a single average over the motion of the spacecraft, considering an elliptic orbit for ...

Two new companions to the Pluto-Charon binary system have been detected in 2005 by Weaver et al. These small satellites, named Nix and Hydra, are located beyond Charon's orbit. Although they are small when compared to ...

Low-altitude, near-polar orbits are very desirable as science orbits for missions to planetary satellites, such as the Earth's Moon. In this paper, we present an analytical theory with numerical simulations to study the ...

The strange morphology of the F ring of Saturn is thought to be caused by the perturbing effects of two close satellites, Prometheus and Pandora. The F ring and the satellites also experience periodic close encounters as ...

This paper explores the possibility that the progenitors of the small satellites of Pluto got captured in the Pluto-Charon system from the massive heliocentric planetesimal disk in which Pluto was originally embedded into. ...

Some Voyager images showed that the F ring of Saturn is composed of at least four separate, non-intersecting, strands covering about 45 degrees in longitude. According to Murray et al. [Murray, C.D., Gordon, M., Giuliatti ...