Parametric approximations of fast close encounters of the planar three-body problem as arcs of a focus-focus dynamics

Abstract A gravitational close encounter of a small body with a planet may produce a substantial change of its orbital parameters which can be studied using the circular restricted three-body problem. In this paper we provide parametric representations of the fast close encounters with the secondary body of the planar CRTBP as arcs of non-linear focus-focus dynamics. The result is the consequence of a remarkable factorisation of the Birkhoff normal forms of the Hamiltonian of the problem represented with the Levi–Civita regularisation. The parameterisations are computed using two different sequences of Birkhoff normalisations of given order N . For each value of N , the Birkhoff normalisations and the parameters of the focus-focus dynamics are represented by polynomials whose coefficients can be computed iteratively with a computer algebra system; no quadratures, such as those needed to compute action-angle variables of resonant normal forms, are needed. We also provide some numerical demonstrations of the method for values of the mass parameter representative of the Sun–Earth and the Sun–Jupiter cases.