Comet and moon solutions in the time-dependent restricted $(n+1)$-body problem

Abstract

The time-dependent restricted $(n+1)$-body problem concerns the study of a massless body (satellite) under the influence of the gravitational field generated by $n$ primary bodies following a periodic solution of the $n$-body problem. We prove that the satellite has periodic solutions close to the large-amplitude circular orbits of the Kepler problem (comet solutions), and in the case that the primaries are in a relative equilibrium, close to small-amplitude circular orbits near a primary body (moon solutions). The comet and moon solutions are constructed with the application of a Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction to the action functional. In addition, using reversibility technics, we compute numerically the comet and moon solutions for the case of four primaries following the super-eight choreography.