Related papers: Secular evolution of a satellite by tidal effect. …
How fast a satellite decays its orbit depends on how slowly its mass is lost by tide. Motivated by inner halo satellite remnants like the Sgr and Omega Cen, we develop fully analytical models to study the orbital decay and tidal massloss of…
The origin of the high inclination of Uranus' spin-axis (Uranus' obliquity) is one of the great unanswered questions about the Solar system. Giant planets are believed to form with nearly zero obliquity, and it has been shown that the…
The Galilean satellites' dynamics has been studied extensively during the last century. In the past it was common to use analytical expansions in order to get simple models to integrate, but with the new generation computers it became…
This paper explores the possibility that the progenitors of the small satellites of Pluto got captured in the Pluto-Charon system from the massive heliocentric planetesimal disk in which Pluto was originally embedded into. We find that, if…
The five libration points of a sun-planet system are stable or unstable fixed positions at which satellites or asteroids can remain fixed relative to the two orbiting bodies. A moon orbiting around the planet causes a time-dependent…
This study analyzes secular dynamics using averaged equations that detail tidal effects on the motion of two extended bodies in Keplerian orbits. It introduces formulas for energy dissipation within each body of a binary system. The…
Earth-mass planets are expected to have atmospheres and experience thermal tides raised by the host star. These tides transfer energy to the planet that can counter the dissipation from bodily tides. Indeed, even a relatively thin…
Recent studies have revealed that all large (over 1000 km in diameter) trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) form satellite systems. Although the largest Plutonian satellite, Charon, is thought to be an intact fragment of an impactor directly…
We revisit the rotation dynamics of a rigid satellite with either a liquid core or a global sub-surface ocean. In both problems, the flow of the fluid component is assumed inviscid. The study of a hollow satellite with a liquid core is…
The irregular satellites of outer planets are thought to have been captured from heliocentric orbits. The exact nature of the capture process, however, remains uncertain. We examine the possibility that irregular satellites were captured…
A giant impact origin for the Moon is generally accepted, but many aspects of lunar formation remain poorly understood and debated. \'Cuk et al. (2016) proposed that an impact that left the Earth-Moon system with high obliquity and angular…
The origin of the irregular satellites of the giant planets has been long debated since their discovery. Their dynamical features argue against an in-situ formation suggesting they are captured bodies, yet there is no global consensus on…
We show that the existence of prograde equatorial satellites is consistent with a collisional tilting scenario for Uranus. In fact, if the planet was surrounded by a proto-satellite disk at the time of the tilting and a massive ring of…
It has been proposed recently that the first step in the formation of both rocky and gas giant planets is dust sedimentation into a solid core inside a gas clump (giant planet embryo). The clumps are then assumed to migrate closer to the…
Utilizing the TNG50 simulation, we study two types of alignments for satellites/subhalos: 1) the alignment of their major axes with the galactocentric radial directions (radial alignment), and 2) with the motion directions (orbital…
We study how tides in a binary system induce some specific internal shear mixing, able to substantially modify the evolution of close binaries prior to mass transfer. We construct numerical models accounting for tidal interactions,…
We have investigated i) the formation of gravitationally bounded pairs of gas-giant planets (which we call "binary planets") from capturing each other through planet-planet dynamical tide during their close encounters and ii) the following…
The formation and orbital evolution of Saturn's inner mid-sized moons are still debated. The most puzzling aspects are 1) how the Tethys-Dione pair and the Mimas-Enceladus pair passed through their strong 3:2 mean-motion resonances during…
Fragmentation and fission of giant molecular clouds occasionally results in a pair of gravitationally bound star clusters that orbit their mutual centre of mass for some time, under the influence of internal and external perturbations. We…
We perform numerical simulations of the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven exoplanets orbiting a nearby M dwarf, starting with a previously suggested stable configuration. The long-term stability of this configuration is confirmed, but the motion…