Related papers: Do Centaurs preserve their source inclinations?
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…
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…
Most known trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) gravitationally scattering off the giant planets have orbital inclinations consistent with an origin from the classical Kuiper belt, but a small fraction of these "scattering TNOs" have inclinations…
In this work we present the results of a suite of dynamical simulations following the orbital evolution of 8,022 hypothetical Centaur objects. These Centaurs begin our integrations on orbits in the vicinity of the 2:1 mean motion resonance…
Some principles in the distribution of Centaurs and the "Scattered Disk" objects, as well as the Kuiper belt objects for its semi-major axes, eccentricities and inclinations of the orbits have been investigated. It has been established,…
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.…
It was recently proposed that there exists a "gateway" in the orbital parameter space through which Centaurs transition to Jupiter-family Comets (JFCs). Further studies have implied that the majority of objects that eventually evolve into…
Among all the asteroid dynamical groups, Centaurs have the highest fraction of objects moving in retrograde orbits. The distribution in absolute magnitude, H, of known retrograde Centaurs with semi-major axes in the range 6-34 AU exhibits a…
Solar system Centaurs originate in transneptunian space from where planet orbit crossing events inject their orbits inside the giant planets' domain. Here, we examine this injection process in the three-body problem by studying the orbital…
Transiting giant planets provide a natural opportunity to examine stellar obliquities, which offer clues about the origin and dynamical histories of close-in planets. Hot Jupiters orbiting Sun-like stars show a tendency for obliquity…
Most comets are volatile-rich bodies that have recently entered the inner solar system following long-term storage in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud reservoirs. These reservoirs feed several distinct, short-lived "small body"…
Centaurs are minor planets thought to have originated in the outer Solar System region known as the Kuiper Belt. Active Centaurs enigmatically display comet-like features (e.g., tails, comae) even though they orbit in the gas giant region…
Stellar occultations provide a powerful tool to explore objects of the outer solar system. The Gaia mission now provides milli-arcsec accuracy on the predictions of these events and makes possible observations that were previously…
Collisions are one of the key processes shaping planetary systems. Asteroid families are outcomes of such collisions still identifiable across our solar system. The families provide a unique view of catastrophic disruption phenomena and…
Jupiter-family comets (JFCs) are the evolutionary products of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) that evolve through the giant planet region as Centaurs and into the inner solar system. Through numerical orbital evolution calculations following…
Our current knowledge of the dynamical structure of the Kuiper Belt is reviewed here. Numerical results on long term orbital evolution and dynamical mechanisms underlying the transport of objects out of the Kuiper Belt are discussed.…
We estimated the rate of comet and asteroid collisions with the terrestrial planets by calculating the orbits of 13000 Jupiter-crossing objects (JCOs) and 1300 resonant asteroids and computing the probabilities of collisions based on…
Using data from the Deep Ecliptic Survey (DES), we investigate the inclination distributions of objects in the Kuiper Belt. We present a derivation for observational bias removal and use this procedure to generate unbiased inclination…
In its 16 years of scientific measurements, the Spitzer Space Telescope performed a number of ground breaking and key infrared measurements of Solar System objects near and far. Targets ranged from the smallest planetesimals to the giant…
The widely-separated, near-equal mass binaries hosted by the cold Classical Kuiper Belt are delicately bound and subject to disruption by many perturbing processes. We use analytical arguments and numerical simulations to determine their…