Related papers: Forming the Cold Classical Kuiper Belt in a light …
The question of what determines the width of Kuiper belt analogues (exoKuiper belts) is an open one. If solved, this understanding would provide valuable insights into the architecture, dynamics, and formation of exoplanetary systems.…
We numerically integrated the orbits of 1458 particles in the region of the classical Kuiper Belt (41 AU < a < 47 AU) to explore the role of dynamical instabilities in sculpting the inclination distribution of the classical Kuiper Belt…
We discuss the observations and theory of star cluster formation to argue that clusters form dynamically cool (subvirial) and with substructure. We then perform an ensemble of simulations of cool, clumpy (fractal) clusters and show that…
We present a new analysis of the currently available orbital elements for the known Kuiper belt objects. In the non-resonant, main Kuiper belt we find a statistically significant relationship between an object's absolute magnitude (H) and…
This chapter discusses the dynamical properties of the Kuiper belt population. Then, it focuses on the characteristics of the Kuiper belt that cannot be explained by its evolution in the framework of the current solar system. We review…
Some planetary systems harbour debris disks containing planetesimals such as asteroids and comets. Collisions between such bodies produce small dust particles, the spectral features of which reveal their composition and, hence, that of…
Planets are built from planetesimals: solids larger than a kilometer which grow by colliding pairwise. Planetesimals themselves are unlikely to form by two-body collisions; sub-km objects have gravitational fields individually too weak, and…
(Abridged) The Edgeworth-Kuiper belt with its presumed dusty debris is a natural reference for extrsolar debris disks. We employ a new algorithm to eliminate the inclination and the distance selection effects in the known TNO populations to…
The discovery of Sedna places new constraints on the origin and evolution of our solar system. Here we investigate the possibility that a close encounter with another star produced the observed edge of the Kuiper belt, at roughly 50 AU, and…
The nature of dark matter (DM) is unknown. One compelling possibility is DM being composed of primordial black holes (PBHs), given the tight limits on some types of elementary particles as DM. There is only one remaining window of masses…
Observations of the Kuiper Belt indicate that a larger than expected percentage of KBO's (approximately 8 out of 500) are in binary pairs. The formation and survival of such objects presents a conundrum [1]. Two competing theories have been…
(Abridged) Using an efficient computational approach, we have reconstructed the structure of the dust cloud in the Solar system between 0.5 and 100 AU produced by the Kuiper belt objects. Our simulations offer a 3-D physical model of the…
Some large trans-Neptunian objects could be formed by the compression of rarefied dust condensations, but not by the accumulation of smaller planetesimals. A considerable portion of near-Earth objects could have come from the…
The large scale structure of the Solar System has been shaped by a transient dynamical instability that may have been triggered by the interaction of the giants planets with a massive primordial disk of icy debris. In this work, we…
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…
Here we show an example of a young asteroid cluster located in a dynamically stable region, which was produced by partial disruption of a primitive body about 30 km in size. We estimate its age to be only 1.9 +/- 0.3 Myr, thus its…
We report high precision photometry of three small and one larger Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (ACS/HST). The three small bodies are the smallest KBOs for which…
Many debris discs reveal a two-component structure, with an outer Kuiper-belt analogue and a warm inner component whose origin is still a matter of debate. One possibility is that warm emission stems from an "asteroid belt" closer in to the…
Recent simulations have shown that the formation of planets in circumbinary configurations (such as those recently discovered by Kepler) is dramatically hindered at the planetesimal accretion stage. The combined action of the binary and the…
Primordial star formation appears to result in stars at least an order of magnitude more massive than modern star formation. It has been proposed that the transition from primordial to modern initial mass functions occurs due to the onset…