Related papers: Why are dense planetary rings only found between 8…
We show that planet formation via both gravitational collapse and core accretion is unlikely to occur in equal mass binary systems with moderate (~ 50 AU) semi-major axes. Internal thermal energy generation in the disks is sufficient to…
Saturn's F ring is subject to dynamic structural changes over short periods. Among the observed phenomena are diffuse extended bright clumps (ECs) ~ 3-40 degrees in longitudinal extent. These ECs appear, evolve, and disappear over a span of…
Caustic rings of dark matter were predicted to exist in the plane of the Galaxy at radii $a_n \simeq 40 {\rm kpc}/n$ for $n = 1,2,3 ..$. The recently discovered Monoceros Ring of stars is located near the $n=2$ caustic, prompting us to…
Dynamical considerations, presented herein via analytic scalings and numerical experiments, imply that Earth-mass planets accreting in regions that become habitable zones of M dwarf stars form within several million years. Temperatures in…
The discovery of high incidence of hot Jupiters in dense clusters challenges the field-based hot Jupiter formation theory. In dense clusters, interactions between planetary systems and flyby stars are relatively common. This has a…
Stellar perturbations affect planet-formation in binary systems. Recent studies show that the planet-formation stage of mutual accretion of km-sized planetesimals is most sensitive to binary effects. In this paper, the condition for…
Many nearby stars are surrounded by a bright ring or disk of cold dust. Our calculations show that these disks and rings of dust are signposts of recent planet formation. Bright rings appear because dust associated with the formation of a…
Narrow dust rings observed around some young stars (e.g., HR 4796A) need to be confined. We present a possible explanation for the formation and confinement of such rings in optically thin circumstellar disks, without invoking shepherding…
The Centaur (10199) Chariklo has the first rings system discovered around a small object. It was first observed using stellar occultation in 2013. Stellar occultations allow the determination of sizes and shapes with kilometre accuracy and…
The presence of rings and moons around exoplanets is likely to be one of the next great discoveries in exoplanet research. Using theories developed for the Solar System, we explore the possibility of coupled ring-moon cycles around…
Regular satellites in the solar system are thought to form within circumplanetary discs. We consider a model of a layered circumplanetary disc that consists of a nonturbulent midplane layer and and strongly turbulent disc surface layers.…
The late infall of cold dark matter onto our galaxy produces discrete flows and caustics in its halo. The recently discovered ring of stars near galactocentric distance 20 kpc and a series of sharp rises in the Milky Way rotation curve are…
We have searched for and estimated the possible gravitational influence of dark matter in the Solar system based on the EPM2011 planetary ephemerides using about 677 thousand positional observations of planets and spacecraft. Most of the…
A relationship between the average orbital radii of the planets and their satellites in the solar system and the spectra of atomic and molecular hydrogen is identified and investigated. In this model, stimulated radiative association…
The Alpha Centauri AB system is an attractive one for radial velocity observations to detect potential exoplanets. The high metallicity of both Alpha Centauri A and B suggest that they could have possessed circumstellar discs capable of…
Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun, is known to host at least one terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit. Here we report the ALMA detection of the star at 1.3 mm wavelength and the discovery of a belt of dust orbiting…
We present two new planetary systems found around cool dwarf stars with data from the K2 mission. The first system was found in K2-239 (EPIC 248545986), char- acterized in this work as M3.0V and observed in the 14th campaign of K2. It…
The mid-infrared spectral region provides a unique window into the atmospheric temperature, chemistry, and dynamics of the giant planets. From more than a century of mid-infrared remote sensing, progressively clearer pictures of the…
The Kepler mission has yielded the discovery of eight circumbinary systems, all found around eclipsing binaries with periods greater than 7 d. This is longer than the typical eclipsing binary period found by Kepler, and hence there is a…
Planetary companions to the source stars of a caustic-crossing binary microlensing events can be detected via the deviation from the parent light curves created when the caustic magnifies the star light reflecting off the atmosphere or…