Orbital dynamics of Atlas (S XV): Its current orbit and the recent past

Abstract

This study comprehensively analyzes Atlas’s current orbit, focusing on the secular and resonant perturbations caused by Prometheus, Pandora, and Saturn’s oblateness. We performed numerical integration of the exact equations of motion for a dense ensemble of Atlas clone satellites. Through spectral analysis and interpretation of these orbits on dynamical maps, we identified the domain of the 54:53 Prometheus–Atlas and 70:67 Pandora–Atlas mean-motion resonances, showing that Atlas lies on the boundary of the separatrices of each of these resonances. We also identified the domains for the multiplets Ψ 1 , Ψ 2 , Ψ 3 and Ψ 4 associated with 70:67 resonance. Additionally, we explored the variation in Prometheus’s eccentricity, demonstrating that as eccentricity increases (or decreases) in the 54:53 resonance domain correspondingly decreases (or increases). This combined analysis, between the above mappings, revealed qualitatively the overlap between the 54:53 and 70:67 resonances, which are responsible for the chaotic behavior of Atlas’s orbit. We quantified chaotic motion in frequency space and found that the vicinity of Atlas is characterized by weak to moderate chaos, rather than strong chaos. Finally, we investigated Atlas’s recent past, considering Prometheus’s migration under the influence of Saturn’s tidal forces. This analysis reveals several resonances crossed in the past, particularly focusing on the Atlas–Prometheus pair, which exhibited a co-orbital configuration.