Related papers: Numerical Modeling of the 2009 Impact Event on Jup…
On 4 July 2005 at 05:52 UT, the impactor of NASA's Deep Impact (DI) mission crashed into comet 9P/Tempel 1 with a velocity of about 10 km/s. The material ejected by the impact expanded into the normal coma, produced by ordinary cometary…
We investigated how a target's porosity affects the outcome of a collision, with respect to the impactor's fate. Laboratory impact experiments using peridot projectiles were performed at a speed range between 0.3 and 3.0 km/s, onto high…
We extend previous results showing that the surfaces of Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt objects are not primordial and have been moderately to heavily reworked by collisions. Objects smaller than about $r = 2.5$ km have collisional disruption…
The $24^{\circ}$ N jet borders the North Tropical Belt and North Tropical Zone, and is the fastest prograde jet on Jupiter, reaching speeds above $170$ m/s. In this region, observations have shown several periodic convective plumes, likely…
We use an existing laboratory facility for space hardware calibration in vacuum to study the impact of energetic ions on water ice. The experiment is intended to simulate the conditions on the surface of Jupiter's icy moons. We present…
We present a three dimensional hot Jupiter model, extending from 200 bar to 1 mbar, using the Intermediate General Circulation Model from the University of Reading. Our horizontal spectral resolution is T31 (equivalent to a grid of 48x96),…
Spectropolarimetry of the Deep Impact target, comet 9P/ Tempel 1, was performed during the impact event on July 4th, 2005 with the HiVIS Spectropolarimeter and the AEOS 3.67m telescope on Haleakala, Maui. We observed atypical polarization…
Torques from a mutually inclined perturber can change a transiting planet's impact parameter, resulting in variations in the transit shape and duration. Detection of and upper limits on changes in impact parameter yield valuable constraints…
The Juno mission has provided an accurate determination of Jupiter's gravitational field, which has been used to obtain information about the planet's composition and internal structure. Several models of Jupiter's structure that fit the…
We investigate the distribution of encounter velocities and impact angles describing collisions in the habitable zone of the early planetary system. Here we present a catalogue of collision characteristics for a particular mass ratio of the…
11 transient bright flashes were detected in Jupiter's atmosphere using the UVS instrument on the Juno spacecraft. These bright flashes are only observed in a single spin of the spacecraft and their brightness decays exponentially with…
The transverse momentum anisotropy of the particles produced in heavy ion collisions is one of the most important experimental observable to investigate the collective behavior of the systems created in such collisions. Recent studies show…
Recent observations of asteroidal surfaces indicate the presence of materials that do not match the bulk lithology of the body. A possible explanation for the presence of these exogenous materials is that they are products of inter-asteroid…
The Dust Detector System onboard Galileo records dust impacts in the Jupiter system. Impact events are classified into four quality classes. Class 3 -- our highest quality class -- has always been noise-free and, therefore, contains only…
We present an updated analysis of Jupiter's equatorial meteorology from Cassini observations. For two months preceding the spacecraft's closest approach, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) onboard regularly imaged the atmosphere. We…
We study the impactor flux and cratering on Pluto and Charon due to the collisional evolution of Plutinos. Plutinos are those trans-Neptunian objects located at 39.5 AU, in the 3:2 mean motion resonance with Neptune. To do this, we develop…
Hot Jupiters receive intense irradiation from their stellar hosts. The resulting extreme environments in their atmospheres allow us to study the conditions that drive planetary atmospheric dynamics, e.g., global-scale winds. General…
The surface impact and collisions of particle-laden nanodrops are studied using molecular dynamics computer simulations. The drops are composed of Lennard- Jones dimers and the particles are rigid spherical sections of a cubic lattice, with…
We analyzed Deep Impact High Resolution Instrument (HRI) images acquired within the first seconds after collision of the Deep Impact impactor with the nucleus of comet 9P/Tempel 1. These images reveal an optically thick ejecta plume that…
The generation of plasma from hypervelocity impacts is an active research topic due to its important science and engineering ramifications in various applications. Previous studies have mainly focused on the ionization of the solid…