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The Origin of Chaos in the Outer Solar System

N. Murray·M. Holman
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Abstract

Classical analytic theories of the solar system indicate that it is stable, but numerical integrations suggest that it is chaotic. This disagreement is resolved by a new analytic theory. The theory shows that the chaos among the Jovian planets results from the overlap of the components of a mean motion resonance among Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, and provides rough estimates of the Lyapunov time (10 million years) and the dynamical lifetime of Uranus (10^{18} years). The Jovian planets must have entered the resonance after all the gas and most of the planetesimals in the protoplanetary disk were removed.

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N. Murray, M. Holman. 1999-03-18. The Origin of Chaos in the Outer Solar System. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.283.5409.1877

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