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Title:
Long-term evolution of the spin of Mercury. I. Effect of the obliquity and core-mantle friction
Authors:
Correia, Alexandre C. M.; Laskar, Jacques
Affiliation:
AA(Departamento de Física, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal; Astronomie et Systèmes Dynamiques, IMCCE-CNRS UMR8028, Observatoire de Paris, UPMC, 77 Av. Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France), AB(Astronomie et Systèmes Dynamiques, IMCCE-CNRS UMR8028, Observatoire de Paris, UPMC, 77 Av. Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France)
Publication:
Icarus, Volume 205, Issue 2, p. 338-355. (Icarus Homepage)
Publication Date:
02/2010
Origin:
ELSEVIER
Abstract Copyright:
(c) 2009 Elsevier Inc.
DOI:
10.1016/j.icarus.2009.08.006
Bibliographic Code:
2010Icar..205..338C

Abstract

The present obliquity of Mercury is very low (less than 0.1°), which led previous studies to always adopt a nearly zero obliquity during the planet's past evolution. However, the initial orientation of Mercury's rotation axis is unknown and probably much different than today. As a consequence, we believe that the obliquity could have been significant when the rotation rate of the planet first encountered spin-orbit resonances. In order to compute the capture probabilities in resonance for any evolutionary scenario, we present in full detail the dynamical equations governing the long-term evolution of the spin, including the obliquity contribution. The secular spin evolution of Mercury results from tidal interactions with the Sun, but also from viscous friction at the core-mantle boundary. Here, this effect is also regarded with particular attention. Previous studies show that a liquid core enhances drastically the chances of capture in spin-orbit resonances. We confirm these results for null obliquity, but we find that the capture probability generally decreases as the obliquity increases. We finally show that, when core-mantle friction is combined with obliquity evolution, the spin can evolve into some unexpected configurations as the synchronous or the 1/2 spin-orbit resonance.
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