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Science 3 July 1992:
Vol. 257. no. 5066, pp. 56 - 62
DOI: 10.1126/science.257.5066.56
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Articles

Chaotic Evolution of the Solar System

Gerald Jay Sussman 1 and Jack Wisdom 2

1 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
2 Department of Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139

The evolution of the entire planetary system has been numerically integrated for a time span of nearly 100 million years. This calculation confirms that the evolution of the solar system as a whole is chaotic, with a time scale of exponential divergence of about 4 million years. Additional numerical experiments indicate that the Jovian planet subsystem is chaotic, although some small variations in the model can yield quasiperiodic motion. The motion of Pluto is independently and robustly chaotic.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Geologic constraints on the chaotic diffusion of the solar system.
H. Palike, J. Laskar, and N. J. Shackleton (2004)
Geology 32, 929-932
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The Chaotic Obliquity of Mars.
J. Touma, J. Touma, and J. Wisdom (1993)
Science 259, 1294-1297
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)