Related papers: Dynamical capture in the Pluto-Charon system

The history of the outer solar system is intrinsically related to the Giant Planets migration. A massive disk of material within a radius of 30~au was scattered during the planetary migration, creating different dynamic populations in the…

This study explores the gravitational interaction between Pluto and its moon Charon, which has led to their synchronous orbit, where they consistently show the same face to each other. This process is known as tidal evolution, which…

A search for temporal changes on Pluto and Charon was motivated by (1) the discovery of young surfaces in the Pluto system that imply ongoing or recent geologic activity, (2) the detection of active plumes on Triton during the Voyager 2…

The satellites of extrasolar planets (exomoons) have been recently proposed as astrobiological targets. Since giant planets in the habitable zone are thought to have migrated there, it is possible that they may have captured a former…

The flyby of Pluto and Charon by the New Horizons spacecraft provided high-resolution images of cratered surfaces embedded in the Kuiper belt, an extensive region of bodies orbiting beyond Neptune. Impact craters on Pluto and Charon were…

The dwarf planet Pluto is known to host an extended system of five co-planar satellites. Previous studies have explored the formation and evolution of the system in isolation, neglecting perturbative effects by the Sun. Here we show that…

Recent studies have revealed that all large (over 1000 km in diameter) trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) form satellite systems. Although the largest Plutonian satellite, Charon, is thought to be an intact fragment of an impactor directly…

We investigated the probability that an inelastic collision of planetesimals within the Hill sphere of the Jovian planets could explain the presence and orbits of observed irregular satellites. Capture of satellites via this mechanism is…

In the solar system, quasi-satellites move in a 1:1 mean motion resonance going around their host body like a retrograde satellite but their mutual separation is well beyond the Hill radius and the trajectory is not closed as they orbit the…

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…

The Solar System's orbital structure is thought to have been sculpted by an episode of dynamical instability among the giant planets. However, the instability trigger and timing have not been clearly established. Hydrodynamical modeling has…

When a planetary tidal disk -like Saturn's rings- spreads beyond the Roche radius (inside which planetary tides prevent aggregation), satellites form and migrate away. Here, we show that most regular satellites in the solar system probably…

Sufficiently massive growing giant planets have circumplanetary disks, and the capture of solid bodies by the disks would likely influence the growth of the planets and formation of satellite systems around them. In addition to dust…

We follow the contraction and evolution of a typical Jupiter-mass clump created by the disk instability mechanism, and compute the rate of planetesimal capture during this evolution. We show that such a clump has a slow contraction phase…

The Pluto-Charon system is a binary system, characterised by its high mass ratio and its tidally locked synchronous orbit. Surrounding the central binary, four satellites - Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra - follow near-circular and near…

Binary solar system objects are common and range from satellite systems with very large mass ratios $M_1/M_2$ to mass ratios very close to unity. A well-known example of a binary is the Pluto-Charon system. With Charon only eight times less…

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…

Planetary systems can evolve dynamically even after the planets themselves have fully formed, and there is circumstantial evidence that most planetary systems become unstable after the disappearance of the gaseous protoplanetary disk.…

We have investigated the dependence of the prograde/retrograde temporary capture of asteroids by a planet on their original heliocentric semimajor axes through analytical arguments and numerical orbital integrations in order to discuss the…

The Pluto-Charon system, likely formed from an impact, has reached the endpoint of its tidal evolution. During its evolution into the dual-synchronous state, the equilibrium tidal figures of Pluto and Charon would have also evolved as…