Jack Wisdom Emeritus Professor of Planetary Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology (617) 253-7730 wisdom@mit.edu Blog

Biography

Jack Wisdom is an Emeritus Professor of Planetary Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his B.S. in Physics from Rice University in 1976, and his Ph.D. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1981. He joined the MIT faculty in 1984. His research has focused on applications of Hamiltonian dynamics to problems of planetary dynamics. He has particularly focused on problems that involve chaotic behavior.

Wisdom is a coauthor (with Gerald Jay Sussman, Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT) of two books: "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics" and "Functional Differential Geometry." The novel feature of both books is the use of programming to provide a precise and unambiguous understanding of the ideas and mathematics of each subject.

Beginning in 1986, Wisdom and Sussman have investigated the stability of our solar system through long term numerical simulations. These investigations were initially carried out with the Digital Orrery, a special purpose computer built by Sussman and colleagues. In 1988 Wisdom and Sussman reported numerical evidence that the motion of Pluto, then considered one of the planets, is chaotic. The Digital Orrery is now retired at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. In 1992, Wisdom and Sussman showed that our solar system evolves chaotically through direct numerical integration of the full equations of motion. This result extended by two orders of magnitude the longest numerical integration of the solar system. It was made possible by two innovations: the development of a new integration algorithm ("Symplectic Maps for the N-Body Problem," of Wisdom and his Ph.D. student Matthew Holman), which is more stable and an order of magnitude faster than conventional integration algorithms, and the building of the Supercomputer Toolkit, another special purpose computer built by Sussman and colleagues. The symplectic mapping method was generalized to include rotational dynamics by Jihad Touma, in his Ph.D. thesis with Wisdom. The resulting method was used by Touma and Wisdom in 1993 to show that the evolution of the obliquity (tilt of the spin axis) of Mars is wildly chaotic, varying from 0 to 60 degrees on a multimillion year timescale.

Wisdom has studied the dynamics of numerous other subsystems in the solar system within this Hamiltonian framework and using these methods. These problems include the explanation of the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt (chaotic zones associated with orbital resonances that lead to removal of material in the gap by planet crossing or encounters with the Sun), the delivery of meteorites from the asteroid belt to the Earth, the exploration of satellite resonance dynamics, the stability of the Kuiper belt of comets in the outer solar system, and the origin and evolution of Earth's Moon. In 2022 Wisdom and colleagues offered a new explanation of the tilt of Saturn and the origin of its rings.

Wisdom is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. In 2020, he was selected as a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society.

Education

• Rice University, B.S. (Physics), 1976.
• California Institute of Technology, Ph.D. (Physics), 1981.

Honors and Awards

• 2020 Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society
• 2014 Visiting Meyerhoff Professor, Weizmann Institute
• 2008 Member, National Academy of Sciences
• 2007 Visiting Miller Professor, UC Berkeley
• 2007 Moore Distinguished Scholar, Caltech
• 2002 Dirk Brouwer Award of the AAS Division for Dynamical Astronomy (citation)
• 1994 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship
• 1992 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1988-1994 NSF Presidential Young Investigator
• 1987 Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society
• 1986 Harold C. Urey Prize of the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences
• 1975 Claude W. Heaps Prize, Rice University (Essay)

Books

• Functional Differential Geometry, Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom with Will Farr, MIT Press, 2013.
• Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics, second edition, Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, MIT Press, 2015. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262028967/structure-and-interpretation-of-classical-mechanics/

Selected Publications

• ``The Origin of Jupiter's Obliquity'' Rola Dbouk and Jack Wisdom, 2023, PSJ, 4, 188.
• ``Loss of a satellite could explain Saturn' obliquity and young rings'' Jack Wisdom, Rola Dbouk, Burkhard Militzer, William B. Hubbard, Francis Nimmo, Brynna G. Downey, and Richard G. French 2022, Science, 377, 1285-1289.
• ``Vertical angular momentum constraint on lunar formation and orbital history'' ZhenLiang Tian and Jack Wisdom 2020, PNAS.
• ``Meteorite Transport Revisited II'' Jack Wisdom 2020, MAPS.
• ``The Dynamical Sytems Approach to Numerical Integration'' Jack Wisdom 2018, MNRAS, 474, 3273.
• ``Meteorite Transport Revisited'' Jack Wisdom 2017, MAPS, 52, 1660.
• ``Coupled thermal-orbital evolution of the early Earth-Moon system with a fast-spinning Earth'' ZhenLiang Tian, Jack Wisdom, and Linda Elkins-Tanton 2017 Icarus, 281, 90.
• ``Sympletic test particle encounters: a comparison of methods" Jack Wisdom 2017 MNRAS, 464, 2350.
• ''Dynamic Elastic Tides'' Jack Wisdom and Jennifer Meyer 2016. Celest. Mech. Dyn. Astr., 126, 1.
• ''Differential Rotation in Jupiter: A Comparison of Methods'' Jack Wisdom and William Hubbard 2016. Icarus, 267, 315.
• ''Resolving the Pericenter'' Jack Wisdom 2015, Astron. J., 150, 127.
• ''A Fast and Accurate Universal Kepler Solver without Stumpff Series'' Jack Wisdom and David M. Hernandez 2015, MNRAS, 453, 3015.
• ''Early evolution of the Earth-Moon system with a fast-spinning Earth'' Jack Wisdom and ZhenLiang Tian 2015, Icarus, 256, 138.
• ''Precession of the Lunar Core'' Jennifer Meyer and Jack Wisdom 2011, Icarus, 211 , 921.
• ''Coupled Thermal-orbital Evolution of the Early Moon'' Jennifer Meyer and Jack Wisdom 2010, Icarus, 208 , 1.
• ''Epsiodic Volcanism on Enceladus: Application of the Ojakanga-Stevenson Model'' Jennifer Meyer and Jack Wisdom 2008, Icarus, 198 , 178.
• ''Tidal Dissipation at Arbitrary Eccentricity and Obliquity'' Jack Wisdom 2008, Icarus, 193 , 637.
• ''Tidal Evolution of Mimas, Enceladus, and Dione'' Jennifer Meyer and Jack Wisdom 2008, Icarus, 193 , 213.
• ''Tidal Heating in Enceladus'' Jennifer Meyer and Jack Wisdom 2007, Icarus, 188 , 535.
• ''Evidence for a Past High Eccentricity Lunar Orbit'' Ian Garrick-Bethell, Jack Wisdom, and Maria Zuber 2006, Science, 313 , 652.
• ''Cassini Observes the Active South Pole of Enceladus'' C.C. Porco, P. Helfenstein, P.C. Thomas, A.P. Ingersoll, J. Wisdom, and 20 coauthors 2006 Science , 311 , 1393.
• ''Symplectic Correctors for Canonical Heliocentric N-Body Maps'' Jack Wisdom 2006, Astron. J., 131 , 2294.
• ''Dynamics of the Lunar Spin Axis'' Jack Wisdom 2006, Astron. J., 131 , 1864.
• ''A Neptune-sized Planet in the 55 Cancri System'' Jack Wisdom 2005, BAAS 37 , 2.
• ''Functional Differential Geometry'' G.J. Sussman and J. Wisdom 2005, AI Lab Technical Report, AIM-2005-003.
• ''Motion of the mantle in the translational modes of the Earth and Mercury'' P. Grinfeld and J. Wisdom 2005, PEPI, 151 , 77.
• ''Spin-orbit Secondary Resonance Dynamics of Enceladus'' Jack Wisdom 2004, Astron. J., 128 , 484.
• ''Swimming in Spacetime: Motion in Space by Cyclic Changes in Body Shape'' Jack Wisdom 2003, Science , 299 , 1865.
• ''The Role of Programming in the Formulation of Ideas'' G.J. Sussman and J. Wisdom 2002, AI Lab Technical Report, AIM-2002-018.
• ''Swimming in Space-Time'' Jack Wisdom 2002, AI Lab Technical Report, AIM-2002-017.
• ''Non-linear Core-Mantle Coupling'' J. Touma and J. Wisdom 2001, Astron. J., 122, 1030.
• ''Resonances in the Early Evolution of the Earth-Moon System'' J. Touma and J. Wisdom 1998, Astron. J., 115, 1653.
• ''Non-perturbative Hydrostatic Equilibrium'' Jack Wisdom 1996 (unpublished)
• ''Symplectic Correctors'' J. Wisdom with M. Holman and J. Touma 1996, Fields Inst. Com., 10, 217.
• ''Evolution of the Earth-Moon System'' J. Touma and J. Wisdom 1994, Astron. J. 108, 1943.
• ''The Chaotic Obliquity of Mars'' J. Touma and J. Wisdom 1993, Science 259, 1294.
• ''Lie-Poisson Integrators for Rigid Body Dynamics in the Solar System'' J. Touma and J. Wisdom 1993, Astron. J. 107, 1189.
• ''Dynamical Stability of the Outer Solar System and the Delivery of Short Period Comets'' M. Holman and J. Wisdom 1993, Astron. J. 105, 1987.
• ''Symplectic Maps for the N-Body Problem: Stability Analysis'' J. Wisdom and M. Holman 1992, Astron. J. 104, 2022.
• ''Chaotic Evolution of the Solar System'' G.J. Sussman and J. Wisdom 1992, Science 257, 56.
• "Long Term Evolution of the Solar System" Jack Wisdom 1992, proceedings of the IAU symposium on "Chaos, Resonances, and Collective Dynamical Phenomena in the Solar System" held in Angra Dos Reis, Brazil, 1991.
• ''Symplectic Maps for the N-Body Problem'' J. Wisdom and M. Holman 1991, Astron. J. 102, 1528.
• ''Simple Dynamical Models of Neptune's Great Dark Spot'' L.M. Polvani and J. Wisdom with E. DeJong and A.P. Ingersoll 1990, Science 249, 1393.
• ''Is the Solar System Stable? and Can We Use Chaos to Make Measurements?'' Jack Wisdom 1990, in Chaos, proceedings of the ''Joint Soviet-American Chaos Conference'' held at Woods Hole, June, 1989.
• ''Chaotic Lagrangian Trajectories Around an Elliptical Vortex Patch Embedded in a Constant and Uniform Background Shear Flow'' L.M. Polvani and J. Wisdom 1990, Physics of Fluids A.
• ''Tidal Evolution of the Uranian Satellites. Part III, Evolution through the Miranda-Umbriel 3:1, Miranda-Ariel 5:3, and Ariel-Umbriel 2:1 Mean Motion Commensurabilities'' W. Tittemore and J. Wisdom 1990, Icarus 85, 394-443.
• ''Tidal Evolution of the Uranian Satellites. Part II: Explanation of the Anomalously Large Inclination of Miranda'' W. Tittemore and J. Wisdom 1989, Icarus 78, 63.
• ''Numerical Evidence that the Motion of Pluto is Chaotic'' G.J. Sussman and J. Wisdom 1988, Science 241, 433.
• ''Local Simulations of Planetary Rings'' J. Wisdom and S.D. Tremaine 1988, Astron. J. 95, 925.
• ''Rotational Dynamics of Irregularly Shaped Natural Satellites'' Jack Wisdom 1987, Astron. J. 94, 1350.
• ''Tidal Evolution of the Uranian Satellites. Part I: Passage of Ariel and Umbriel through the 5:3 Mean-Motion Commensurability'' W. Tittemore and J. Wisdom 1987, Icarus 74, 172.
• ''Urey Prize Lecture: Chaotic Dynamics in the Solar System'' Jack Wisdom 1987, Icarus 72, 241.
• ''Chaotic Behavior in the Solar System'' Jack Wisdom 1987, Proc. R. Soc. Lon. A 413, 109.
• ''Canonical Solution of the Two Critical Argument Problem'' Jack Wisdom 1986, Celes. Mech. 38, 175.
• ''The Outer Solar System for 200 Million Years'' J. Applegate, M. Douglas, Y. Gursel, G.J. Sussman, J. Wisdom, 1986, Astron. J. 92, 176. reprinted in Lecture Notes in Physics #267 -- Use of supercomputers in stellar dynamics, Springer Verlag, 1986.
• ''A Perturbative Treatment of Motion Near the 3/1 Commensurability'' Jack Wisdom 1985, Icarus 63, 272.
• ''Meteorites May Follow a Chaotic Route to Earth'' Jack Wisdom 1985, Nature 315, 731.
• ''The Chaotic Rotation of Hyperion'' J. Wisdom, S.J. Peale, and F. Mignard 1984, Icarus 58, 137. reprinted in Hamiltonian Dynamical Systems, eds. R.S. MacKay and J.D. Meiss (Adam Hilger, 1987).
• ''Chaotic Behavior and the Origin of the 3/1 Kirkwood Gap'' Jack Wisdom 1983, Icarus 56, 51.
• ''The Benettin--Strelcyn Oval Billiard Revisited'' M. Henon and J. Wisdom 1983, Physica 8D, 157.
• ''The Origin of the Kirkwood Gaps: A Mapping for Asteroidal Motion Near the 3/1 Commensurability'' Jack Wisdom 1981, Astron. J. 87, 557.
• ''The Resonance Overlap Criterion and the Onset of Stochastic Behavior in the Restricted Three-Body Problem'' Jack Wisdom 1980, Astron. J. 85, 1122.