A synchronous moon as a possible cause of Mars' initial triaxiality

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteur principal: Efroimsky, Michael
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Efroimsky, Michael
author_facet Efroimsky, Michael
contents The paper addresses the possibility of a young Mars having had a massive moon, which synchronised the rotation of Mars, and gave Mars an initial asymmetric triaxiality to be later boosted by geological processes. It turns out that a moon of less than a third of the lunar mass was capable of producing a sufficient initial triaxiality. The asymmetry of the initial tidal shape of the equator depends on timing: the initial asymmetry is much stronger if the synchronous moon shows up already at the magma-ocean stage. From the moment of synchronisation of Mars' rotation with the moon's orbital motion, and until the moon was eliminated (as one possibility, by an impact in the beginning of the LHB), the moon was sustaining an early value of Mars' rotation rate.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_14725
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A synchronous moon as a possible cause of Mars' initial triaxiality
Efroimsky, Michael
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
The paper addresses the possibility of a young Mars having had a massive moon, which synchronised the rotation of Mars, and gave Mars an initial asymmetric triaxiality to be later boosted by geological processes. It turns out that a moon of less than a third of the lunar mass was capable of producing a sufficient initial triaxiality. The asymmetry of the initial tidal shape of the equator depends on timing: the initial asymmetry is much stronger if the synchronous moon shows up already at the magma-ocean stage. From the moment of synchronisation of Mars' rotation with the moon's orbital motion, and until the moon was eliminated (as one possibility, by an impact in the beginning of the LHB), the moon was sustaining an early value of Mars' rotation rate.
title A synchronous moon as a possible cause of Mars' initial triaxiality
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.14725