Related papers: The Neptune Trojans - a new source for the Centaur…
Jupiter Trojans appear to be a key population of small bodies to study and test the models of the Solar System formation and evolution. Because understanding the evolution of Trojans can bring strong and unique constraints on the origins of…
Trojans are circumstellar bodies that reside in characteristic 1:1 orbital resonances with planets. While all the trojans in our Solar System are small (< ~100 km), stable planet-size trojans may exist in extrasolar planetary systems, and…
With perihelia well beyond Neptune, but semimajor axes and eccentricities indicative of substantial perturbation, the origins of detached trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) remain a dynamical puzzle. In particular, detached TNOs with orbital…
Jupiter Trojans are thought to be survivors of a much larger population of planetesimals that existed in the planetary region when planets formed. They can provide important constraints on the mass and properties of the planetesimal disk,…
The Centaurs are a transient population of small bodies in the outer solar system whose orbits are strongly chaotic. These objects typically suffer significant changes of orbital parameters on timescales of a few thousand years, and their…
Recently, Sheppard et al. (2016) presented the discovery of seven new trans-Neptunian objects with moderate eccentricities, perihelia beyond 40 AU, and semimajor axes beyond 50 AU. Like the few previously known objects on similar orbits,…
The origins of the colours of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) represent a crucial unresolved question, central to understanding the history of our Solar System. Recent observational surveys revealed correlations between the eccentricity and…
Small bodies are the remnant building blocks from the time when the planets formed and migrated to their current positions. Their volatile composition and relative abundances serve as time capsules for the formation conditions in the…
Microlensing surveys suggest the presence of a surprisingly large population of free-floating planets, with a rate of about two Neptunes per star. The origin of such objects is not known, neither do we know if they are truly unbound or are…
The discovery and characteristics of transneptunian binaries are reviewed. In the 20 years since their first discovery, a wealth of detail has emerged including the frequency of binaries in different populations, their relative sizes and…
The orbital distribution of trans-Neptunian objects provides strong evidence for the radial migration of Neptune. The outer planets' orbits are thought to have become unstable during the early stages with Jupiter having scattering…
We examine the dynamics of small bodies in orbits similar to that of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1, i.e. near-circular orbits between Jupiter and Saturn. As of late 2019, there are 14 other known bodies in this region that lie in similar…
The core accretion theory of planet formation has at least two fundamental problems explaining the origins of Uranus and Neptune: (1) dynamical times in the trans-Saturnian solar nebula are so long that core growth can take > 15 Myr, and…
The Jovian Trojans are two swarms of objects located around the L$_4$ and L$_5$ Lagrange points. The population is thought to have been captured by Jupiter during the Solar system's youth. Within the swarms, six collisional families have…
Abundance ratios of carbon, nitrogen and strontium relative to iron, calculated using spectrum synthesis techniques, are given for a sample of main sequence and turnoff stars that belong to the globular cluster omega Centauri. The…
Various properties of Jovian trojan asteroids such as composition, rotation periods, and photometric amplitudes, or the rate of binarity in the population can provide information and constraints on the evolution of the group and of the…
Trans-Neptunian objects and Centaurs are small solar system bodies that reside in the outer parts of the solar system. These objects present photometric behaviours that are influenced due to a change in their aspect angle. Using absolute…
The origins of Uranus and Neptune are not fully understood. Their inclined rotation axes -- obliquities -- suggest that they experienced giant impacts during their formation histories. Simulations modeling their accretion from giant impacts…
There are at least three sources of cosmic quarks in the universe. One, the quark nuggets which may survive beyond a certain baryon number during the phase transition from quarks to hadrons microseconds after the big bang. These quark…
Nbody simulations are used to examine the consequences of Neptune's outward migration into the Kuiper Belt, with the simulated endstates being compared rigorously and quantitatively to the observations. These simulations confirm the…