Related papers: Are Large Trojan Asteroids Salty? An Observational…
In 2018, Jewitt identified the "The Trojan Color Conundrum", namely that Neptune's Trojan asteroids (NTs) had no ultra-red members, unlike the the nearby Kuiper Belt. Since then, numerous ultra-red NTs have been discovered, seemingly…
We present an ultra-deep survey for Neptune Trojans using the Subaru 8.2-m and Magellan 6.5-m telescopes. The survey reached a 50% detection efficiency in the R-band at 25.7 magnitudes and covered 49 square degrees of sky. This depth…
Recent discoveries have revealed a population of "popcorn planets" that have masses similar to that of Neptune but radii comparable to Jupiter, leading to exceptionally low bulk densities $\rho_p \lesssim 0.3\,\mathrm{g}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-3}$.…
Irregular satellites of Jupiter with their highly eccentric, inclined and distant orbits suggest that their capture took place just before the giant planet migration. We aim to improve our understanding of the surface composition of…
The leading theory for the origin of Jupiter Trojans (JTs) assumes that JTs were captured to their orbits near the Lagrangian points of Jupiter during the early reconfiguration of the giant planets. The natural source region for the…
Spacecraft and ground-based observations show that the main rings of Saturn lack particles larger than 10 m. Tidal or collisional destruction of satellites/comets have been proposed as the origin of the main rings; however, Saturn's tide…
We explore experimentally possible explanations of the polarization curves of the sunlight reflected by the Barbarian asteroids. Their peculiar polarization curves are characterized by a large inversion angle, around 30 degrees, which could…
The origin of rings around giant planets remains elusive. Saturn's rings are massive and made of 90-95% of water ice. In contrast, the much less massive rings of Uranus and Neptune are dark and likely to have higher rock fraction. Here we…
Asteroids near the Sun can attain equilibrium temperatures sufficient to induce surface modification from thermal fracture, desiccation and decomposition of hydrated silicates. We present optical observations of nine asteroids with…
Numerous geological features that could be evaporitic in origin have been identified on the surface of Titan. Although they seem to be water-ice poor, their main properties -chemical composition, thickness, stratification- are essentially…
The nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko exhibits a broad spectral reflectance feature around 3.2 $\mu$m, which is omnipresent in all spectra of the surface, and whose attribution has remained elusive since its discovery. Based on…
Saturn's ionosphere is produced when the otherwise neutral atmosphere is exposed to a flow of energetic charged particles or solar radiation. At low latitudes the latter should result in a weak planet-wide glow in infrared (IR),…
We suggest an additional possible plasma source to explain part of the phenomena observed for the transiting hot Jupiters WASP-12b and HD 189733b in their ultraviolet (UV) light curves. In the proposed scenario, material outgasses from the…
Methods to constrain the surface mineralogy of asteroids have seen considerable development during the last decade with advancement in laboratory spectral calibrations and validation of our interpretive methodologies by spacecraft…
The Jupiter Trojans are a significant population of minor bodies in the middle Solar System that have garnered substantial interest in recent years. Several spectroscopic studies of these objects have revealed notable bimodalities with…
Asteroid pairs, two objects that are not gravitationally bound to one another, but share a common origin, have been discovered in the Main belt and Hungaria populations. Such pairs are of major interest, as the study of their evolution…
The red spectral shape of the visible to near infrared reflectance spectrum of the sharply-edged ring-like disk around the young main sequence star HR 4796A was recently interpreted as the presence of tholin-like complex organic materials…
We present new optical reflectance spectra of three potentially silicate-rich trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). These spectra were obtained with the aim of confirming past hints and detections of 0.7 micron absorption features associated with…
Thousands of transiting exoplanets have been discovered, but spectral analysis of their atmospheres has so far been dominated by a small number of exoplanets and data spanning relatively narrow wavelength ranges (such as 1.1 to 1.7 {\mu}m).…
In this work, we present 0.7-5.0 {\mu}m spectra of eight Neptunian Trojans (NTs) as observed by the JWST's NIRSpec instrument. The reddest NT, 2013 VX30, exhibits a unique spectrum with strong absorption features between 3 - 4 {\mu}m, while…