A new paper by PhD student George Bell titled “The Gravitational Braking of Captured Moons Around Ringed Planets” has been published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society

The paper and project aims to investigate capture dynamics of irregular moons around ringed planets, with Phoebe and Saturn used as a real case study (below).

Abstract

Irregular moons are a class of satellite found orbiting all of the Solar System’s giant planets: as their orbits do not match those of their planets, they are theorised to have formed elsewhere in the Solar System and were subsequently captured into their observed orbits. Missions such as Cassini have contributed significant empirical data on irregular moons in the present day but this paper aims to develop our currently limited theoretical understanding of their origins and capture as it presents one of the first projects to connect moon capture with another feature common to all giant planets: ring systems.
As a captured body gravitationally brakes around a ringed planet, it transfers orbital energy to the planetary system, a process which has been seen to leave distinctive signatures on the rings which may be used to constrain key parameters of this interaction, including the trajectory and timing. This paper presents a project which applies this technique to constrain scenarios for moon capture through conducting a series of computational simulations using the Python version of the astrophysical code REBOUND modelling the capture of the large irregular moon Phoebe by the planet Saturn and
Phoebe’s effect on Saturn’s ring system. By helping to constrain scenarios for moon capture, this research will further our understanding of the moon systems of the giant planets while simulating the effects of a moon’s interaction with a ring system by offering insight into the formation and evolution of planetary rings, whether within our own Solar System or orbiting exoplanets.

Quantum physics and Astrophysics have been captivating the minds of Physicists and the general public for decades. In this event, two of our academics from the School of Mathematics and Physics here at the University of Lincoln will start the discussion with their ‘top tricky questions’ in the fields of astrophysics and quantum physics.

Astronomy (Dr Phil Sutton:

• How many Moons does the Earth have?
• Why are there no green stars?

Quantum Physics (Dr Matt Booth):

• What is wave / particle duality?
• What is a wave function?
• What is superposition?

A fun , relaxed and informative event for A-level and GSCE students to promote the pursuit of the study of Physics!

About this event

I believe it’s important for people to realise that pursuing the study of Physics, and going on to centre your career on it, isn’t just one straight path. It’s one with options to change direction, there’s a whole multitude of things you can do with Physics.

I didn’t realise that until University. I just kept doing Physics because I loved to do it, I had no idea of how much I could do with it until much later on! So, I’ve organised this session for precisely that purpose and to also get people inspired.

Manuela is a lecturer at the University of Lincoln and is an expert in some of the computer simulation techniques in condensed matter physics. She has a PhD from King’s College London in Computational Physics where she wrote her thesis on the theoretical characterization of STM images of assemblies of flat organic molecules on metal surfaces, under the supervision of Prof Lev Kantorovitch. Manuela also has a MSc in Physics from the University of Cagliari, she is from Italy originally.

Sorcha is a PhD student at the University of Liverpool. Both will be talking about their backgrounds in physics and their current research.

Get tickets to this online event here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/meet-the-physicist-tickets-169650742939