Modelling the evolution of the two-planetary three-body system of variable masses

Abstract

A classical non-stationary three-body problem with two bodies of variable mass moving around the third body on quasi-periodic orbits is considered. In addition to the Newtonian gravitational attraction, the bodies are acted on by the reactive forces arising due to anisotropic variation of the masses. We show that Newtonian’s formalism may be generalized to the case of variable masses and equations of motion are derived in terms of the osculating elements of aperiodic motion on quasiconic sections. As equations of motion are not integrable the perturbative method is applied with the perturbing forces expanded into power series in terms of eccentricities and inclinations which are assumed to be small. Averaging these equations over the mean longitudes of the bodies in the absence of a mean-motion resonances, we obtain the differential equations describing the evolution of orbital parameters over long period of time. We solve the evolution equations numerically and demonstrate that the mass change modify essentially the system evolution.

Keywords

• three-body problem
• variable mass
• equations of motion
• reactive forces
• evolution equations
• Wolfram Mathematica