Related papers: A pre-Caloris synchronous rotation for Mercury
We investigate orbital resonances expected to arise when a system of two planets, with masses in the range 1-4 Earth masses, undergoes convergent migration while embedded in a section of gaseous disc where the flow is laminar. We consider…
The rotational evolution of Mercury's mantle and its core under conservative and dissipative torques is important for understanding the planet's spin state. Dissipation results from tides and viscous, magnetic and topographic core--mantle…
We use a nonstationary generalization of the higher-order structure function technique to investigate statistical properties of the magnetic field fluctuations recorded by MESSENGER spacecraft during its first flyby (01/14/2008) through the…
The origin of Mercury still remains poorly understood compared to the other rocky planets of the Solar System. One of the most relevant constraints that any formation model has to fulfill refers to its internal structure, with a predominant…
Planetary rotation rate is a key parameter in determining atmospheric circulation and hence the spatial pattern of clouds. Since clouds can exert a dominant control on planetary radiation balance, rotation rate could be critical for…
We report in this paper the numerical simulations of the capture into the 3:1 mean-motion resonance between the planet b and c in the 55 Cancri system. The results show that this resonance can be obtained by a differential planetary…
Giant collisions can account for Uranus's and Neptune's large obliquities, yet generating two planets with widely different tilts and strikingly similar spin rates is a low-probability event. Trapping into a secular spin-orbit resonance, a…
Circumbinary planets whose orbits become unstable may be ejected, accreted, or even captured by one of the stars. We quantify the relative rates of these channels, for a binary of secondary star's mass fraction 0.1 with an orbit of 1AU. The…
Resonant locking of two planets is an expected outcome of convergent disc migration. The planets subsequently migrate together as a resonant pair. In the context of circumbinary planets, the disc is truncated internally by the binary. If…
The recently discovered planetary system HD45364 which consists of a Jupiter and Saturn mass planet is very likely in a 3:2 mean motion resonance. The standard scenario to form planetary commensurabilities is convergent migration of two…
We study the formation of the 9:7 mean motion resonance in a system of two low-mass planets ($m_{1}=m_{2}=3M_{\oplus}$) embedded in a gaseous protoplanetary disk employing a full 2D hydrodynamic treatment of the disk-planet interactions.…
We present the dynamical structure of the phase space of the planar planetary 2/1 mean-motion resonance (MMR). Inside the resonant domain, there exist two families of periodic orbits, one associated to the librational motion of the critical…
The effect of radial drift rate on mean motion resonance capture is studied for prograde, polar and retrograde orbits. We employ the numerical framework of our earlier exploration of resonance capture at arbitrary inclination. Randomly…
We generalize spin-rotation coupling to compound spin systems. In the case of muons bound to nuclei in a storage ring the decay process acquires a modulation. Typical frequencies for $Z/A\sim 1/2$ are $\sim 3\times 10^6$Hz, a factor 10…
The rotation of a planet located in the habitable zone of a solar-type star can be reversed by a smooth process associated with the formation of its atmosphere and the increase of stronger torques, opposite to normal tidal torques. Our…
Coorbital bodies are observed around the Sun sharing their orbits with the planets, but also in some pairs of satellites around Saturn. The existence of coorbital planets around other stars has also been proposed. For close-in planets and…
MESSENGER magnetometer data show that Mercury's magnetic field is not only exceptionally weak but also has a unique geometry. The internal field resembles an axial dipole that is offset to the North by 20% of the planetary radius. This…
Context: In the early evolution of a planetary system, a pair of planets may be captured in a mean motion resonance while still embedded in their nesting circumstellar disk. Aims: The goal is to estimate the direction and amount of shift in…
Using a new approach, we have obtained a formula for calculating the rotation period and radius of planets. In the ordinary gravitomagnetism the gravitational spin ($S$) orbit ($L$) coupling, $\vec{L}\cdot\vec{S}\propto L^2$, while our…
It is widely assumed that a star and its protoplanetary disk are initially aligned, with the stellar equator parallel to the disk plane. When observations reveal a misalignment between stellar rotation and the orbital motion of a planet,…