Irregular Satellites - Definition

Definition

Planet rH (Gm)
Jupiter 51
Saturn 69
Uranus 73
Neptune 116

There is no widely accepted precise definition of an irregular satellite. Informally, satellites are considered irregular if they are far enough from the planet that the precession of their orbital plane is primarily controlled by the Sun.

In practice, the satellite's semi-major axis is compared with the planet's Hill sphere (that is, the sphere of its gravitational influence) . Irregular satellites have semi-major axes greater than 0.05 with apoapses extending as far as to 0.65 . The radius of the Hill sphere is given in the adjacent table.

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