海王星的两个卫星被锁定在一个“回避之舞”

海王星的两个卫星被锁定在一个“回避之舞”

Neptune may be one of the more mysterious planets in the solar system, but a new study notes that two of its moons, Naiad and Thalassa, are locked in a “dance of avoidance.”

海王星可能是太阳系中较为神秘的行星之一，但一项新的研究指出，海王星的两颗卫星Naiad和Thalassa陷入了一种“回避之舞”

The research, which can be read on the arXiv repository, notes that the two celestial satellites are only separated by approximately 1,150 miles, but they never get within 2,200 miles of one another, orbiting at slightly different speeds. Naiad also moves in a “zigzag pattern,” whereas Thalassa does not.

这项研究可以从arXiv的数据库里看到，两颗卫星之间只有大约1150英里的距离，但它们之间的距离从未低于2200英里，轨道运行速度略有不同。Naiad也以“之字形”移动，而Thalassa没有。

“We refer to this repeating pattern as a resonance,” said the study’s lead author, Marina Brozovic, an expert in solar system dynamics at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. “There are many different types of ‘dances’ that planets, moons and asteroids can follow, but this one has never been seen before.”

该研究的主要作者，美国宇航局喷气推进实验室太阳系动力学专家玛丽娜·布罗佐维奇(Marina Brozovic)在一份声明中说：“我们把这种重复模式称为共振。”。“有许多不同类型的‘舞蹈’，行星、卫星和小行星都可以跟着跳，但这一种舞蹈以前从未见过。”

The pattern never changes, as Naiad takes around seven hours to orbit the icy giant planet and Thalassa takes approximately seven and a half hours.

这种模式从未改变，因为Naiad需要大约七小时来绕过冰冷的巨大行星，而Thalassa需要大约七个半小时。

It’s unclear how this pattern started, but Brozovic believes it may have occurred when their original pattern was disrupted after Neptune captured its largest moon, Triton, eons ago.

目前还不清楚这一模式是如何开始的，但布罗佐维奇认为，这可能是在海王星捕获其最大的卫星海卫一(Triton)后，它们最初的模式被破坏时发生的。

“We suspect that Naiad was kicked into its tilted orbit by an earlier interaction with one of Neptune’s other inner moons,” Brozovic added in the statement. “Only later, after its orbital tilt was established, could Naiad settle into this unusual resonance with Thalassa.”

布罗佐维奇在声明中补充说:“我们怀疑，是由于早先与海王星其他内部卫星的相互作用，才使Naiad进入了它倾斜的轨道。”“直到后来，在它的轨道倾斜被建立之后，Naiad才与Thalassa产生了这种不同寻常的共鸣。”