Related papers: Speed limit on Neptune migration imposed by Saturn…
The probability that an exoplanet transits its host star is high for planets in close orbits, but drops off rapidly for increasing semimajor axes. This makes transit surveys for planets with large semimajor axes orbiting bright stars…
Recent {\em Kepler} observations revealed an unexpected abundance of "hot" Earth-size to Neptune-size planets in the inner $0.02-0.2$ AU from their parent stars. We propose that these smaller planets are the remnants of massive giant…
Recent observational surveys of the outer Solar System provide evidence that Neptune's distant $n$:1 mean-motion resonances may harbor relatively large reservoirs of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). In particular, the discovery of two…
Hundred meter sized objects have been identified by the Cassini spacecraft in Saturn's A ring through the so-called "propeller" features they create in the ring. These moonlets should migrate, due to their gravitational interaction with the…
Planets in the habitable zone of lower-mass stars are often assumed to be in a state of tidally synchronized rotation, which would considerably affect their putative habitability. Although thermal tides cause Venus to rotate retrogradely,…
AU Mic~b is a Neptune size planet on a 8.47-day orbit around the nearest pre-main sequence ($\sim$20 Myr) star to the Sun, the bright (V=8.81) M dwarf AU Mic. The planet was preliminary detected in Doppler radial velocity time series and…
With recent advances in the modeling of the solar system giant planets, rapid progress has been made in understanding the remaining questions pertaining to their formation and evolution. However, this progress has largely neglected the…
Eccentricity or obliquity tides have been proposed as the missing energy source that may explain the anomalously large radius of some transiting ``hot Jupiters''. To maintain a non-zero and large obliquity, it was argued that the planets…
The results of the numerical investigations of the evolution of orbits of trans-Neptunian bodies at the 2 : 3 resonance with Neptune are presented. The gravitational influence of the four giant planets was taken into account. For identical…
There is an intriguing and growing population of Neptune-sized planets with stellar obliquities near $\sim90^{\circ}$. One previously proposed formation pathway is a disk-driven resonance, which can take place at the end stages of planet…
A residual planetesimal disk of mass 10-100 Earth masses remained in the outer solar system following the birth of the giant planets, as implied by the existence of the Oort cloud, coagulation requirements for Pluto, and inefficiencies in…
Current theories of planetary evolution predict that infant giant planets have large radii and very low densities before they slowly contract to reach their final size after about several hundred million years. These theoretical…
We present a mechanism related to the migration of giant protoplanets embedded in a protoplanetary disc whereby a giant protoplanet is caught up, before having migrated all the way to the central star, by a lighter outer giant protoplanet.…
Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) in the scattered disk with 50 < a < 100 au are thought to cluster near Neptune's n:1 resonances (e.g: 3:1, 4:1, and so on). While these objects spend lengthy periods of time at large heliocentric distances, if…
Knowledge of an exoplanet's oblateness and obliquity would give clues about its formation and internal structure. In principle, a light curve of a transiting planet bears information about the planet's shape, but previous work has shown…
Here we present the current state of knowledge on the long-term evolution of Saturn's moon system due to tides within Saturn. First we provide some background on tidal evolution, orbital resonances and satellite tides. Then we address in…
Planets migrate due to the recoil they experience from scattering solid (planetesimal) bodies. To first order, the torques exerted by the interior and exterior disks cancel, analogous to the cancellation of the torques from the…
We investigate the survivability of Trojan-type companions of Neptune during primordial radial migration of the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Loss of Neptune Trojans during planetary migration is not a random diffusion…
The accurate determination of Saturn's gravitational coefficients by Cassini could provide tighter constrains on Saturn's internal structure. Also, occultation measurements provide important information on the planetary shape which is often…
It has been suggested that the ice shell of Jupiter's moon Europa may drift non-synchronously due to tidal torques. Here we argue that torques applied by the underlying ocean are also important and can result in non-synchronous rotation…