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The origin of rings around giant planets remains elusive. Saturn's rings are massive and made of 90-95% of water ice. In contrast, the much less massive rings of Uranus and Neptune are dark and likely to have higher rock fraction. Here we…
Dark matter could be composed of macroscopic objects with large masses and geometric cross-sections spanning many decades. We investigate the potential interaction of such `stuff-sized' dark matter by considering its interactions with…
Here a discussion on the Loulan Kingdom, an ancient kingdom along the Silk Road, and some observations based on satellite images.
The shell bound by the Karman line at a height of 80 to 100km above the Earth's surface, and Geosynchronous Orbit, at 36,000km, is defined as the orbital space surrounding the Earth. It is within this region, and especially in Low Earth…
Late-stage Ca-sulfate-filled fractures are common on Mars. Notably, the Shenandoah formation in the western edge of Jezero crater preserves a variety of Ca-sulfate minerals in the fine-grained siliciclastic rocks explored by the…
In this paper we put forward a proposal to use Near Earth Objects as radiation shield for deep space exploration. In principle these objects can provide also a spacious habitat for the astronauts and their supplies on their journeys. We…
Since 2004, observations of Saturn's F ring have revealed that the ring's core is surrounded by structures with radial scales of hundreds of kilometers, called "spirals" and "jets". Gravitational scattering by nearby moons was suggested as…
The asteroid belt is a unique source of information on some of the most important questions facing solar system science. These questions include the sizes, numbers, types and orbital distributions of the planetesimals that formed the…
The Syria conflict has been described as the most socially mediated in history, with online social media playing a particularly important role. At the same time, the ever-changing landscape of the conflict leads to difficulties in applying…
The Hadean, once thought to be uninhabitable and tumultuous, has more recently been recontextualized as a clement time in which oceans, land, and life likely appeared on Earth. This non-exhaustive chapter follows multiple threads from…
The existence of Earth's Trojan asteroids is not well constrained and represents a major gap in our inventory of small bodies in near-Earth space. Their discovery would be of high scientific and human interest.
Small (~50km scale), irregular features seen in Cassini images to be emanating from Saturn's F ring have been termed mini-jets by Attree et al. (2012). One particular mini-jet was tracked over half an orbital period, revealing its evolution…
In addition to its suite of narrow dense rings, Uranus is surrounded by an extremely complex system of dusty rings that were most clearly seen by the Voyager spacecraft after it flew past the planet. A new analysis of the highest resolution…
We present observations of a solar quiet region obtained by the ground-based Dutch Open Telescope (DOT), and by instruments on the spacecraft SOHO and TRACE. The observations were obtained during a coordinated observing campaign on October…
The phase space of an area-preserving map typically contains infinitely many elliptic islands embedded in a chaotic sea. Orbits near the boundary of a chaotic region have been observed to stick for long times, strongly influencing their…
The Pluto system was recently explored by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, making closest approach on 14 July 2015. Pluto's surface displays diverse landforms, terrain ages, albedos, colors, and composition gradients. Evidence is found for a…
Various dynamically important extragalactic large-scale structures in the local Universe lie behind the Milky Way. Most of these structures (predicted and unexpected) have only recently been made ``visible'' through dedicated deep surveys…
We propose a LSST Solar System near-Sun Survey, to be implemented during twilight hours, that extends the seasonal reach of LSST to its maximum as fresh sky is uncovered at about 50 square degrees per night (1500 sq. deg. per lunation) in…
Pluto and its five known satellites form a complex dynamic system. Here we explore where additional satellites could exist exterior to Charon (the innermost moon) but interior of Hydra (the outermost). We also provide dynamical constraints…
Small primordial black holes could be captured by rocky planets or asteroids, consume their liquid cores from inside and leave hollow structures. We calculate the surface density and surface tension of a hollow structure around a black hole…