Perturbation Maps and the ring of Haumea

Abstract

ABSTRACT The dwarf planet Haumea is a trans-Neptunian object that is orbited by two moons and has a recently discovered ring. The particles of this ring are near the 3:1 resonance between the spin of Haumea and the orbital motion of the particles. In this work, the ring of Haumea is investigated using Perturbation Maps. These maps show the behaviour and impact of perturbations acting over particles around Haumea. The information coming from the maps depends on the integral type for the disturbing acceleration used to build the maps. The types II and IV are used. The numerical simulations are focused in the region between 2000 and 2500 km from the centre of Haumea, which is the region where the ring was observed, considering two initial values for the 3:1 resonant angle: θres = 0° and θres = 270°. The possible stable region for the initial angle θres = 0° is larger than the stable region for the initial angle θres = 270°. Furthermore, we found that these stable regions are not continuous, indicating that there are possible gaps in the ring. Therefore, our results suggest that Haumea may not have only one single ring, but a system of rings instead. Possible transit of the particles between the ring and the region close to the orbit of Namaka is also shown.