On Coorbital Moons
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Stubbs, Kimberly Elizabeth
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Abstract
In 1980, spacecraft Voyager I discovered two new moons around Saturn, Janus and Epimetheus. Because their orbits are so close together, these two moons are called coorbital. Counterintuitively, whenever these two moons get close together, they switch orbits. There is another pair of coorbital moons around Saturn, Pandora and Prometheus, which do not switch orbits when they get close together.
To determine when two coorbital moons will switch or simply pass each other, Cors and Hall discovered a parameter a, such that when 2<a<2.5 the moons switch and when a>4 the moons pass each other. When 2.5<a<4, this corresponds to chaotic dynamics between the two moons.
In this paper I will go over Cors and Hall's proof for the ranges for a and will discuss ways I've approached understanding the interactions between two coorbital moons when 2.5<a<4.