How does the oblateness coefficient influence the nature of orbits in the restricted three-body problem?

Abstract

We numerically investigate the case of the planar circular restricted three-body problem where the more massive primary is an oblate spheroid. A thorough numerical analysis takes place in the configuration $(x,y)$ and the $(x,E)$ space in which we classify initial conditions of orbits into three categories: (i) bounded, (ii) escaping and (iii) collisional. Our results reveal that the oblateness coefficient has a huge impact on the character of orbits. Interpreting the collisional motion as leaking in the phase space we related our results to both chaotic scattering and the theory of leaking Hamiltonian systems. We successfully located the escape as well as the collisional basins and we managed to correlate them with the corresponding escape and collision times. We hope our contribution to be useful for a further understanding of the escape and collision properties of motion in this interesting version of the restricted three-body problem.