Two mechanisms of natural transport in the Solar System

In this paper, two natural transport mechanisms in Solar System are considered. The first is a short-time transport, and is based on the existence of “pseudo-heteroclinic” connections between libration point orbits of pairs of Sun–planet planar circular restricted three-body problems (PCR3BP). The stable and unstable manifolds associated with the libration point orbits of different Sun–planet PCR3BP systems are computed. Then the intersections between the inner and the outer manifolds of all the consecutive planets in the Solar System are explored. The second mechanism, which is common and qualitatively well understood in two-degrees of freedom Hamiltonian systems, corresponds to a long-time transport, and is the result of the strongly chaotic motion of the minor body in the PCR3BP. In this contribution, we present an analysis of the natural transport in the Solar System based on these two mechanisms. In particular, we discuss the key properties of the natural transport, such as the possibility of transfering between two specified celestial bodies, the type of transport and the time of flight. The final objective is to provide a deeper dynamical insight into the exchange mechanisms of natural material in the Solar System.

► Short-time transport based on the “pseudo-heteroclinic” connections is discussed.
► Long-time transport based on the chaotic motion in RTBP is investigated.
► The exchange mechanisms of natural material in the Solar System are analysed.