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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…
$\textit{Aims.}$ We study the possible dynamical background of three Apollo asteroids: 3200 Phaethon, 2005 UD, and 1999 YC. The source regions under consideration are the asteroid families (2) Pallas, in the outer belt, and two inner-belt…
Over the course of the past two decades, observational surveys have unveiled the intricate orbital structure of the Kuiper Belt, a field of icy bodies orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. In addition to a host of readily-predictable orbital…
Context: Various ideas have been proposed to explain the formation of the Geminid meteoroid stream from the asteroid (3200) Phaethon. However, little has been studied about the Geminid formation based on the assumption that mass ejection…
The potential existence of a distant planet ("Planet Nine") in the Solar system has prompted a re-think about the evolution of planetary systems. As the Sun transitions from a main sequence star into a white dwarf, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus…
The short period Jupiter family comets (JFCs) are thought to originate in the Kuiper Belt; specifically, a dynamical subclass of the Kuiper Belt known as the `scattered disk' is argued to be the dominant source of JFCs. However, the best…
Young stars are mostly found in dense stellar environments, and even our own Solar system may have formed in a star cluster. Here, we numerically explore the evolution of planetary systems similar to our own Solar system in star clusters.…
Astrophysical evidence suggests that the Sun was born near 5 kpc from the Galactic center, within the corotation radius of the Galactic bar, around 6-7 kpc. This presents challenges for outward migration due to the Jacobi energy constraint,…
Planet atmospheric escape induced by high-energy stellar irradiation is a key phenomenon shaping the structure and evolution of planetary atmospheres. Therefore, the present-day properties of a planetary atmosphere are intimately connected…
Near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon is notable for its association to a strong annual meteor shower, the Geminids, indicative of one or more episodes of mass ejection in the past. The mechanism of Phaethon's past activity is not yet…
(99942) Apophis is a potentially hazardous asteroid that will closely approach the Earth on April 13, 2029. Although the likelihood of an impact has been ruled out, this close encounter represents a unique opportunity for planetary science…
The DART spacecraft is planned to impact the secondary of the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos in 2022, to assess deflection strategies for planetary defense. The impact will create a crater and release asteroidal material, some of which…
We present a deep imaging and spectroscopic search for emission from (3200) Phaethon, a large near-Earth asteroid that appears to be the parent of the strong Geminid meteoroid stream, using the 4.3 m Lowell Discovery Telescope. Observations…
Centaurs are small Solar System objects on chaotic orbits in the giant planet region, forming an evolutionary continuum with the Kuiper belt objects and Jupiter-family comets. Some Centaurs are known to exhibit cometary activity, though…
The observed near-Earth asteroid population contains very few objects with small perihelion distances, say, q<=0.2 au. NEAs that currently have orbits with larger q might be hiding a past evolution during which they have approached closer…
Theory suggests that the orbits of a large fraction of binary systems, including planet-star binary systems, shrink by few orders of magnitude after formation. But so far, only one hot Jupiter with tidally-driven orbital decay has been…
The region where the main asteroid belt is now located may have started empty, to become populated early in the history of the Solar system with material scattered outward by the terrestrial planets and inward by the giant planets. These…
The first direct detection of the asteroidal YORP effect, a phenomenon that changes the spin states of small bodies due to thermal reemission of sunlight from their surfaces, was obtained for (54509) YORP 2000 PH5. Such an alteration can…
Surveys for exoplanets indicate that the occurrence rate of gas giant planets orbiting late-type stars in orbits with periods shorter than 1000 days is lower than in the case of Sun-like stars. This is in agreement with planet formation…
We present a general analytic framework to assess whether impact ejecta launched from the surface of a satellite can escape the gravitational influence of the planet--satellite system and enter heliocentric orbit. Using a patched-conic…