Related papers: Planetary Bow Shocks
Runaway, massive stars are not among the most numerous. However, the bow shocks built by their supersonic movement in the interstellar medium have been detected in the infrared range in many cases. Most recently, the stellar bow shocks have…
A widely considered characteristic of extra-solar planetary systems has been a seeming tendency for major axes of adjacent orbits to librate in stable configurations. Based on a new catalog of extra-solar planets (Butler et al. 2006) and…
Hot Jupiters can experience mass loss driven by heating from UV radiation from their host stars, and this flow is often controlled by magnetic fields. More specifically, near the planetry surface, the magnetic pressure dominates the ram…
Using the newly developed code \emph{Menura}, we present the first global picture of the interaction between a turbulent solar wind and a planetary obstacle in our solar system, namely a comet. This first publication aims at shedding lights…
We propose a new method to estimate ion escape from unmagnetized planets that combines observations and models. Assuming that upstream solar wind conditions are known, a computer model of the interaction between the solar wind and the…
Stars interact with their close-in planets through radiation, gravitation, and magnetic fields. We investigate the energy input to a planetary atmosphere by reconnection between stellar and planetary magnetic fields and compare it to the…
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are the most dynamic phenomena in our solar system. They abruptly disrupt the continuous outflow of solar wind by expelling huge clouds of magnetized plasma into interplanetary space with velocities enabling to…
The Solar System hosts the most studied and best understood major and minor planetary bodies - and the only extraterrestrial bodies to have been visited by spacecraft. The Solar System therefore provides important constraints on both the…
In protoplanetary disks, sufficiently massive planets excite pressure bumps, which can then be preferred locations for forming new planet cores. We discuss how this loop may affect the architecture of multi-planet systems, and compare our…
Terrestrial planetary systems may exist around nearby stars as the Earth-sized counterparts to the many giant planets already discovered within the solar neighborhood. In this chapter we first discuss the numerous techniques which have been…
Recent far-infrared mapping of mass-losing stars by the AKARI Infrared Astronomy Satellite and Spitzer Space Telescope have suggested that far-infrared bow shock structures are probably ubiquitous around these mass-losing stars, especially…
We now know that the outer solar system is host to at least six diverse planetary ring systems, each of which is a scientifically compelling target with the potential to inform us about the evolution, history and even the internal structure…
A new solution method is presented for steady-state, momentum-conserving, non-axisymmetric bow shocks and colliding winds in the thin-shell limit. This is a generalization of previous formulations to include a density gradient in the…
The goal of planet formation as a field of study is not only to provide the understanding of how planets come into existence. It is also an interdisciplinary bridge which links astronomy to geology and mineralogy. Recent observations of…
Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, that radiate at the expense of their strong magnetic field and their high surface temperature. Five decades of multi-wavelength observations showed a large variety of physical parameters, such as…
Space weather is among the most powerful and least understood forces shaping planetary atmospheres. In our Solar System, we observe its effects directly: atmospheric escape, chemical disruption, and spectacular auroral displays. Yet for…
We study the chaotic orbital evolution of planetary systems, focusing on secular (i.e., orbit-averaged) interactions, because these often dominate on long timescales. We first focus on the evolution of a test particle that is forced by…
Currently, 20 co-orbital asteroids of Venus are known, with only one with an eccentricity below 0.38. This is most likely caused by observational biases since asteroids with larger eccentricities may approach the Earth and are easier to…
Giant impacts refer to collisions between two objects each of which is massive enough to be considered at least a planetary embryo. The putative collision suffered by the proto-Earth that created the Moon is a prime example, though most…
A self-consistent statistical approach to the problem of planetary and stellar magnetism is suggested. The mechanism of magnetic field generation in the astronomical objects, where the existence of fields is associated with the axial…