Related papers: Where do long-period comets come from? Moving thro…

Understanding the origin of comets requires knowledge of how the Solar System formed from a cloud of dust and gas 4.567 Gyr ago. Here, a review is presented of how the remnants of this formation process, meteorites and to a lesser extent…

We present the discovery of a candidate multiply-transiting system, the first one found in the CoRoT mission. Two transit-like features with periods of 5.11 and 11.76d are detected in the CoRoT light curve, around a main sequence K1V star…

The cratering record on the Earth and Moon shows that our planet has been exposed to high velocity impacts for much or all of its existence. Some of these craters were produced by the impact of long period comets (LPCs). These probably…

Cometary meteoroid trails exist in the vicinity of comets, forming fine structure of the interplanetary dust cloud. The trails consist predominantly of cometary particles with sizes of approximately 0.1 mm to 1 cm which are ejected at low…

The striations in the dust tails of comets are referred to as striae, and their origin has long been a mystery. We introduce a new dynamic model to describe the forms of the striae observed in comets Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1), West (C/1975 V1),…

Asteroid (514107) Kaepaokaawela is the first example of an object in the 1/1 mean motion resonance with Jupiter with retrograde motion around the Sun. Its orbit was shown to be stable over the age of the Solar System which implies that it…

This article relates two topics of central importance in modern astronomy - the discovery some fifteen years ago of the first planets around other stars (exoplanets), and the centuries-old problem of understanding the origin of our own…

Almost all of the $>600$ known Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) have been discovered within 50 AU of the Sun. One possible explanation for the observed lack of KBOs beyond 50 AU is that the distant Kuiper belt is dynamically very cold, and thus…

With more than 6000 exoplanets discovered so far, about 12 percent are hot Jupiters. Their large sizes and short orbital periods make them valuable targets for studying planetary formation, atmospheres, and orbital evolution. We present a…

The modestly eccentric and non-coplanar orbits of the giant planets pose a challenge to solar system formation theories which generally indicate that the giant planets emerged from the protoplanetary disk in nearly perfectly circular and…

We present the first results from the COSINE (Cometary Object Study Investigating their Nature and Evolution) project, based on a uniformly processed dataset of 484 comets observed over the full 15-year duration of the WISE/NEOWISE mission.…

We used the UltraViolet-Optical Telescope on board Swift to systematically follow the dynamically new comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) on its approach to the Sun. The comet was observed from a heliocentric distance of 4.5 AU pre-perihelion…

The Kepler Mission has discovered thousands of exoplanets and revolutionized our understanding of their population. This large, homogeneous catalog of discoveries has enabled rigorous studies of the occurrence rate of exoplanets and…

We investigate numerically the orbital evolution of massive extrasolar planets within central cavities of their parent protoplanetary discs. Assuming that they arrive at the inner edge of the disc due to type II migration, we show that they…

Large-scale radial transport of solids appears to be a fundamental consequence of protoplanetary disk evolution based on the presence of high temperature minerals in comets and the outer regions of protoplanetary disks around other stars.…

We introduce a parameter, X, to predict the changes in the rotational period of a comet in terms of the rotational period itself, the nuclear radius, and the orbital characteristics. We show that X should be a constant if the bulk densities…

Our current understanding of split, Jupiter-family comets is reviewed. The focus is on what recent studies of comets have told us about the nature of the splitting phenomenon. The goal is to not repeat the information given in recent…

The unexpected finding of a ring system around the Centaur (10199) Chariklo opened a new window for dynamical studies and posed many questions about the formation and evolutionary mechanisms of Centaurs as well as the relationship to…

The distance between the pre-impact surface of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 and the upper border of the largest cavity excavated during ejection of material after the collision of the impact module of the Deep Impact spacecraft with the comet is…

Tidal interactions are one of the primary drivers of orbital evolution for massive planets with short orbital periods. Tidal dissipation within host stars can cause the orbits of such planets to decay. However, the mechanisms of tidal…