Regions of stability in rotational dynamics

Abstract

We investigate the rotational dynamics of a triaxial planet moving on a Keplerian orbit around its star. The dynamics is ruled by several parameters, like the eccentricity, the obliquity, the non-principal rotation, the angular momentum, etc. We consider two specific cases in which the planet is symmetric or asymmetric, according to whether two moments of inertia coincide or differs from each other. We study the dynamics by constructing maps of dynamical stability based on the computation of the maximum Lyapunov characteristic number versus some typical parameters. The results show that only specific resonances appear in the symmetric case, while the asymmetric case shows a much richer phenomenology.