Related papers: A Possible Dynamical History for the Fomalhaut Sys…
The goal of this chapter is to review hypotheses for the origin of the Pluto system in light of observational constraints that have been considerably refined over the 85-year interval between the discovery of Pluto and its exploration by…
We use the current orbital structure of large (>50km) asteroids in the main asteroid belt to constrain the evolution of the giant planets when they migrated from their primordial orbits to their current ones. Minton & Malhotra (2009) showed…
Only a few exoplanets are known to orbit around fast rotating stars. One of them is XO-6b, which orbits an F5V-type star. Shortly after the discovery, we started multicolor photometric and radial-velocity follow-up observations of XO-6b,…
As a recently recognized class of objects exhibiting apparently cometary (sublimation-driven) activity yet orbiting completely within the main asteroid belt, main-belt comets (MBCs) have revealed the existence of present-day ice in small…
Despite decades of effort, the mechanisms by which the spin axis of a star and the orbital axes of its planets become misaligned remain elusive. Particularly, it is of great interest whether the large spin-orbit misalignments observed are…
Observations of circumbinary planets orbiting very close to the central stars have shown that planet formation may occur in a very hostile environment, where the gravitational pull from the binary should be very strong on the primordial…
Hot Neptunes in the sub-Jovian desert offer unique insights into planetary system evolution, retaining signatures of dynamical processes that shaped their present-day architectures. Many of these planets exhibit polar orbits, yet the…
The recently discovered circumbinary planets (Kepler-16 b, Kepler-34 b, Kepler-35 b) represent the first direct evidence of the viability of planet formation in circumbinary orbits. We report on the results of N-body simulations…
The dust disk around Beta Pictoris must be produced by collision or by evaporation of orbiting Kuiper belt-like objects. Here we extend the already proposed Orbiting-Evaporating-Bodies (OEB) scenario in which the disk is a gigantic…
The dependences of inclinations of orbits of secondaries in the discovered trans-Neptunian binaries on the distance between the primary and the secondary, on the eccentricity of orbits of the secondary around the primary, on the ratio of…
Pulsar timing observations have revealed companions to neutron stars that include other neutron stars, white dwarfs, main-sequence stars, and planets. We demonstrate that the correlated and apparently stochastic residual times of arrival…
Planet formation occurs around a wide range of stellar masses and stellar system architectures. An improved understanding of the formation process can be achieved by studying it across the full parameter space, particularly toward the…
We investigate the electromagnetic interaction of a relativistic stellar wind with a planet or a smaller body in orbit around the star. This may be relevant to objects orbiting a pulsar, such as PSR B1257+12 and PSR B1620-26 that are…
Proxima Centauri b, an Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of our nearest stellar neighbour, has just been discovered. A theoretical framework of synchronously rotating planets, in which the risk of a runaway greenhouse on the sunlight…
Saturns rings are known to show remarkable real time variability in their structure. Many of which can be associated to interactions with nearby moons and moonlets. Possibly the most interesting and dynamic place in the rings, probably in…
Much remains to be understood about the nature of exoplanets smaller than Neptune, most of which have been discovered in compact multi-planet systems. With its inner ultra-short period planet b aligned with the star and two larger outer…
The origin of Saturn\' s massive ring system is still unknown. Two popular scenarios - the tidal splitting of passing comets and the collisional destruction of a satellite - rely on a high cometary flux in the past. In the present paper we…
The bulk chemical composition and interior structure of rocky exoplanets are of fundamental importance to understanding their long-term evolution and potential habitability. Observations of the chemical compositions of the solar system…
We present observations at optical wavelengths with the Cassini Spacecraft's Imaging Science System of the Phoebe ring, a vast debris disk around Saturn that seems to be collisionally generated by its irregular satellites. The analysis…
The aim of this work is to verify the stability of the proposed orbital solutions for the third moonlet (Delta) taking into account a realistic gravitational potential for the central body of the quadruple system (Alpha). We also aim to…