/Haumea

Self-consistent 3D gravitational simulation of the dwarf planet Haumea

Primary LanguageC++

Haumeau

Haumea is a dwarf planet outside of Neptune's orbit. It is an unresolved source, which means we can't actually make out the shape of the planet, but the light curve shows periodic increases in brightness corresponding to a larger surface area being shown. To recover the planet's morphology, we assume it is a Jacobi Ellipsoid of a given density and simulate a stable, 3D self gravitating body with the observed rotational period of Haumea.

References: [Hachisu 1961]

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Email

jake.hanson@asu.edu