"Orbital Evolution of Centaurs"

ABSTRACT
The Centaurs are a transient population of small bodies in the outer solar system which are thought to be a dynamical class intermediate between the Kuiper Belt and the Jupiter family comets.? They suffer frequent close encounters with the giant planets and their orbits are strongly chaotic.? We are investigating the chaotic behavior of these orbits.? Our numerical analysis of the orbital chaos in these orbits shows two types of behavior: (1) intermittent resonance sticking characterized by sudden jumps from one mean motion resonance to another, which may have characteristics similar to Levy flights, and (2) random walks resulting in anomalous diffusion, in which the mean square deviation of the semimajor axis grows at tH where t is time and H ¡Ú ?.? These results will constrain the possible origins and eventual fates of the Centaurs and will be applicable to the study of chaotic orbital evolution of other small body populations in the solar system.? This work is funded by a grant from NASA¡¦s Outer Planets Research Program.