The Stability of Planetary Systems


Book Description

The Alexander von Humboldt Colloquium on Celestial Mechanics (sub titled "The Stability of Planetary Systems") was held in Ramsau, Styria, in the Austrian Alps, from March the 25th to the 31st, 1984. The dedication of the meeting to Alexander von Humboldt presented partici pants with the challenge that the discussions during the week should reflect the spirit of that great scientist of the last century, that the very many interesting ideas presented and developed during the sessions should be interpreted in the light of a broad v~ew of astron omy and astrophysics. The topics of the meeting ranged from astrometric questions relating to the specification of inertial reference systems, motion of planets (including minor planets) and satellites, with the recurring topic of the search for criteria of stability of the systems, resonances, periodic orbits, and to the origin of the systems. Each session began with one or more invited review papers, followed by offered contributions and discussion. Three evening discussions were held, devoted respectively to inertial systems, to numerical integration techniques, and to cosmogonic problems and ring systems. On the evening of Wednesday, March 28th, a recital of chamber mus~c was given by Bernhard Piberauer, on the violin, and Meinhard Prinz, on the piano.




The Titius-Bode Law of Planetary Distances


Book Description

The Titius-Bode Law of Planetary Distances: Its History and Theory is a 15-chapter book that first discusses the prehistory of the Law from Kepler to Kant. The next chapter details the formulation of the Titius-Bode Law. Subsequent chapters describe the Law's early successes and failures, early modifications of the Law, the Blagg-Richardson formulation, and the significance of the Law with respect to the origin of the solar system. Other chapters discuss the theories of all types that have been proposed to explain the ""classical Titius-Bode Law"", i.e. the geometric progression.




Solar System Dynamics


Book Description

The Solar System is a complex and fascinating dynamical system. This is the first textbook to describe comprehensively the dynamical features of the Solar System and to provide students with all the mathematical tools and physical models they need to understand how it works. It is a benchmark publication in the field of planetary dynamics and destined to become a classic. Clearly written and well illustrated, Solar System Dynamics shows how a basic knowledge of the two- and three-body problems and perturbation theory can be combined to understand features as diverse as the tidal heating of Jupiter's moon Io, the origin of the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt, and the radial structure of Saturn's rings. Problems at the end of each chapter and a free Internet Mathematica® software package are provided. Solar System Dynamics provides an authoritative textbook for courses on planetary dynamics and celestial mechanics. It also equips students with the mathematical tools to tackle broader courses on dynamics, dynamical systems, applications of chaos theory and non-linear dynamics.




The Cambridge N-Body Lectures


Book Description

Published under the auspices of the Royal Astronomical Society, this volume contains a set of extensive school tested lectures, with the aim to give a coherent and thorough background knowledge of the subject and to introduce the latest developments in N-body computational astrophysics. The topics cover a wide range from the classical few-body problem with discussions of resonance, chaos and stability to realistic modelling of star clusters as well as descriptions of codes, algorithms and special hardware for N-body simulations. This collection of topics, related to the gravitational N-body problem, will prove useful to both students and researchers in years to come. 1) Published under the auspices of the Royal Astronomical Society.




Chaos and Stability in Planetary Systems


Book Description

This book is intended as an introduction to the field of planetary systems at the postgraduate level. It consists of four extensive lectures on Hamiltonian dynamics, celestial mechanics, the structure of extrasolar planetary systems and the formation of planets. As such, this volume is particularly suitable for those who need to understand the substantial connections between these different topics.




Dynamical Evolution of Dense Stellar Systems (IAU S246)


Book Description

Dense stellar systems lie at the interface between dynamics, stellar evolution, and galaxy formation, and they provide us with an ideal laboratory to understand many different aspects of these important fields as well as to explore the interplay between them. The complete study of dense stellar systems is a very challenging task which requires the collaboration and the exchange of ideas of astronomers and physicists with observational and theoretical expertise in galactic and extra-galactic astronomy, stellar dynamics, hydrodynamics, stellar evolution, as well as knowledge of many aspects of computational physics. IAU Symposium 246 brought together experts in all these areas to cover the broad field of dense stellar systems with particular emphasis on the interplay between them and on the comparison between observations and simulations. This volume provides a complete review of the most recent studies in this topical research.




Exoplanet Science Strategy


Book Description

The past decade has delivered remarkable discoveries in the study of exoplanets. Hand-in-hand with these advances, a theoretical understanding of the myriad of processes that dictate the formation and evolution of planets has matured, spurred on by the avalanche of unexpected discoveries. Appreciation of the factors that make a planet hospitable to life has grown in sophistication, as has understanding of the context for biosignatures, the remotely detectable aspects of a planet's atmosphere or surface that reveal the presence of life. Exoplanet Science Strategy highlights strategic priorities for large, coordinated efforts that will support the scientific goals of the broad exoplanet science community. This report outlines a strategic plan that will answer lingering questions through a combination of large, ambitious community-supported efforts and support for diverse, creative, community-driven investigator research.




Topics in Gravitational Dynamics


Book Description

This set of lectures collects surveys of open problems in celestial dynamics and dynamical astronomy applied to solar, extra-solar and galactic systems. The discovery and thus the possibility to study many new extra-solar planetary systems have spurred new developments in the field and enabled the testing and enlargement of the domains of validity of theoretical predictions through the Nekhoroshev theorem.




Moving Planets Around


Book Description

An introduction to the laws of celestial mechanics and a step-by-step guide to developing software for direct use in astrophysics research. This book offers both an introduction to the laws of celestial mechanics and a step-by-step guide to developing software for direct use in astrophysics research. It bridges the gap between conventional textbooks, which present a rigorous and exhaustive exposition of theoretical concepts, and applying the theory to tackle real experiments. The text is written engagingly in dialogue form, presenting the research journey of the fictional Alice, Bob, and Professor Starmover. Moving Planets Around not only educates students on the laws of Newtonian gravity, it also provides all that they need to start writing their own software, from scratch, for simulating the dynamical evolution of planets and exoplanets, stars, or other heavenly bodies.




The Exoplanet Handbook


Book Description

A complete and in-depth review of exoplanet research, covering the discovery methods, physics and theoretical background.




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