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Secular Orbital Dynamics of Exoplanet Satellite Candidates

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Abstract

The stability of the secular orbital dynamics of a number of potentially existing satellites of exoplanets has been analyzed. The secular dynamics of possible satellites (“exomoons”) of the planets KOI-268.01, Kepler-1000b, and Kepler-1442b have been found to be stable. The possible values of the exomoon orbital parameters for these systems have been estimated. The dynamics of the satellites discovered around the planets Kepler-1625b and Kepler-1708b from the analysis of observations are considered. It has been found that the semimajor axis of the orbit of the moon of the planet Kepler-1625b can range from 5 to 25 planetary radii. It has been shown that the solution available for the satellites of the planet Kepler-1708b (Kipping et al., 2022) corresponds to a stable orbit of the satellites.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to the reviewer for the useful remarks.

Funding

The study was supported by grant no. 075-15-2020-780 “Theoretical and experimental studies of the formation and evolution of extrasolar planetary systems and characteristics of exoplanets” of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

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  1. Central (Pulkovo) Astronomical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

    A. V. Melnikov

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Translated by M. Chubarova

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Melnikov, A.V. Secular Orbital Dynamics of Exoplanet Satellite Candidates. Sol Syst Res 57, 380–387 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0038094623030061

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