科研之友
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摘要
The observed photometric variability of Nereid over both short and long time scales has been known for some time and has remained a mystery. Schaefer et al. have documented some twenty years worth of observations that reveal that Nereid%26apos;s light curve shows both short period intranight variations and long term active and inactive episodes. In this work, we report on a set of computational simulations of both the orbital and rotational motion of Nereid in an effort to understand Nereid%26apos;s behavior. We model Nereid as an ellipsoid that is subject to torques from other bodies, and we calculate both its orbital and rotational motion. In addition, we only consider the case where Nereid is uniformly reflecting with no albedo variations on its surface. Thus, any brightness variations are caused solely by Nereid%26apos;s changing orientation. We find for reasonable geometries, orientation, and spin rates that we can reproduce some of the features, but not all, of the observed light curve for Nereid. In particular, we show how active and inactive episodes can arise; however, our calculated light curve differs from observations in other aspects.
- 出版日期2013-6
