Polar Orbits around the Newly Formed Earth–Moon Binary System

Abstract

We examine the dynamics and stability of circumbinary particles orbiting around the Earth–Moon binary system. The moon formed close to the Earth (semimajor axis a _EM ≈ 3 R _⊕ ) and expanded through tides to its current day semimajor axis ( a _EM = 60 R _⊕ ). Circumbinary orbits that are polar or highly inclined to the Earth–Moon orbit are subject to two competing effects: (i) nodal precession about the Earth–Moon eccentricity vector and (ii) Kozai–Lidov oscillations of eccentricity and inclination driven by the Sun. While we find that there are no stable polar orbits around the Earth–Moon orbit with the current day semimajor axis, polar orbits were stable immediately after the formation of the Moon, at the time when there was a lot of debris around the system, up to when the semimajor axis reached about a _EM ≈ 10 R _⊕ . We discuss implications of polar orbits on the evolution of the Earth–Moon system and the possibility of polar orbiting moons around exoplanet–moon binaries.

Keywords

• Solar system
• Solar system astronomy