Secular resonance,solar spin down,and the orbit of Mercury |
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| Authors: | William R Ward G Colombo FA Franklin |
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| Institution: | Center for Astrophysics, Harvard College Observatory and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA |
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| Abstract: | A mechanism capable of accounting for the large mean eccentricity (0.175) and inclination (7°.2) of Mercury is discussed. Provided the gravitational field of the rapidly rotating primordial Sun had a sufficiently large second degree harmonic (i.e., J2 ? order 10?3), subsequent solar spin down would drive the orbit of Mercury through two secular resonances with Venus, one involving the precession of the line of apsides, the other one involving the regression of the nodal line. Resonance passage generates contributions to the eccentricity and inclination that are proportional to the square root of the characteristic solar spin down time. We find that an initial solar rotation l period of guarantees passage through resonance and that a spin down time of of order 106 years could have produced the observed eccentricity and inclination. Such a primordial rotation rate is comparable to the measured rotations of very young stars and the spin down time appears consistent with the time scale derived for magnetic braking of the Sun's rotation by an intense solar wind during a T-Tauri stage of solar evolution. |
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