New accurate ephemerides for the Galilean satellites of Jupiter

Abstract

We present a new theory of the four Galilean satellites Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. This theory aims to deliver highly accurate ephemerides able to represent the Galilean satellites' motion over several centuries. It is based on the numerical integration of elaborated equations of motion. This first paper describes and tests many usually neglected perturbations. We are then able to retain some of them in the dynamical model for the Galilean system. A numerical method developed to adjust the model to the observations is given. We used a general formalism so it can be extended to systems other than the Galilean one. As an example of this method, we compare our model to the current E5 ephemerides of the four Galileans.