13/ago/21 – The main perturbers of Prometheus’ and Pandora’s orbits (Dr. Altair Gomes Jr, GDOP/UNESP)

 In 1980, the Saturnian satellites Prometheus and Pandora were discovered close to the inner and outer edges of the F-ring, respectively, by Voyager I. Their initial orbits showed little interaction with the other satellites, except for Mimas. However, posterior observations showed a lag in the angular position of Prometheus relative to the expected one, while Pandora’s position was advanced. In 2003, it was proposed that the 121:118 mean motion resonance between Prometheus and Pandora, resulting in chaos, was responsible for the orbital lags. Notwithstanding, a recent study has shown that the observed lags cannot be explained solely by the gravitational interaction between both satellites. Based on this premise, we analyzed the orbits of Prometheus and Pandora to identify the perturbers that may be responsible for the proposed complementary effect.