Determining the moment of inertia of triaxial Mars with updated global gravity models

The principal moments of inertia(PMIs)with the principal axes are usually taken as the dynamic figure parameters of Mars;they can be deduced from satellite-observed degree-two gravitational potentials in recent global gravity models and from the dynamic ellipticities resulting from precession observations.These PMIs are natural and significant for the geodetic,geophysical,and geodynamic problems of Mars,which are functions of internal density distributions.In this study,a closed and concise formula for determining the PMIs of the entire planet and its core was developed based on the second invariants of gravity and a multipole expansion.We deduced the polar oblateness J^(2)and the equatorial ellipticity J_(22)of Mars to be 1.9566×10^(−3)and 6.3106×10^(−5),respectively.The preferred principal moments of inertia of Mars are A=2.66589×1036 kg·m^(2),B=2.66775×10^(36)kg·m^(2),and C=2.68125×10^(36)kg·m^(2).These values indicate that Mar is slightly triaxial.The equatorial principal moment of inertia of the Martian core is 1.46008×10^(35)kg·m^(2),accounting for~5.47%of the planet’s PMI;this result is critical for investigating the density and size of the core of Mars,and the planet’s free core nutation.

The principal moments of inertia calculated with the hydrostatic equilibrium figure of the Earth

As an indication of the Earth＇s mass distribution, the principal moments of inertia （PMOI, i.e., A, B, C） of the Earth are the basic parameters in studies of the global dynamics of the earth, like earth nutation, and the geophysics. From the aspect of observation, the PMOI can be calculated from the spherical coefficients of observed gravity field. In this paper, the PMOI are calculated directly according to its definition with the figures of the Earth＇s interior derived by a generalized theory of the hydrostatic equilibrium figure of the Earth. We obtain that the angle between the principal axis of the maximum moment of PMOI and the rotational axis is 0.184~, which means that the other two principal axes are very closely in the equatorial plane. Meanwhile, B-A is 1.60 x 10-5 MR2, and the global dynamical flattening （H） is calculated to be 3.29587 ~ 10-3, which is 0.67% different from the latest observation derived value Hobs（3.273795 × 10 ^-3） （Petit and Luzum, 2010）, and this is a significant improvement from the 1.1% difference between the value of H derived from traditional theories of the figure of the Earth and the value of Hobs. It shows that we can calculate the PMOI and H with an appropriate accuracy by a gener- alized theory of the hydrostatic equilibrium figure of the Earth.