Related papers: Main-belt comets: sublimation-driven activity in t…
The magnetic chemically peculiar (mCP) stars of the upper main sequence exhibit strong, globally-organised magnetic fields which are inclined to the rotational axis and facilitate the development of surface abundance inhomogeneities…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as the largest space-based astronomical observatory with near- and mid-infrared instrumentation, will elucidate many mysterious aspects of comets. We summarize four cometary science themes especially…
The existence of starspots on late-type giant stars in close binary systems, that exhibit rapid rotation due to tidal locking, has been known for more than five decades. Photometric monitoring spanning decades has allowed studying the…
Containing only a few percent the mass of the moon, the current asteroid belt is around three to four orders of magnitude smaller that its primordial mass inferred from disk models. Yet dynamical studies have shown that the asteroid belt…
1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua), a recently discovered asteroid in a hyperbolic orbit, is likely the first macroscopic object of extrasolar origin identified in the solar system. Here, we present imaging and spectroscopic observations of…
Recently published space-based observations of main-belt asteroids with the AKARI telescope provide a full description of the 3 {\mu}m band, related to the presence of OH bearing minerals. Here, we use laboratory spectra of carbonaceous…
The NASA Dawn mission has extensively examined the surface of asteroid Vesta, the second most massive body in the main belt. The high quality of the gathered data provides us with an unique opportunity to determine the surface and internal…
We present observations and a dynamical analysis of the comet-like main-belt object, (596) Scheila. V-band photometry obtained on UT 2010 December 12 indicates that Scheila's dust cloud has a scattering cross-section ~1.4 times larger than…
The orbital structure of the asteroid belt holds a record of the Solar System's dynamical history. The current belt only contains ${\rm \sim 10^{-3}}$ Earth masses yet the asteroids' orbits are dynamically excited, with a large spread in…
V-type asteroids are associated with basaltic composition, and are supposed to be fragments of crust of differentiated objects. Most V-type asteroids in the main belt are found in the inner main belt, and are either current members of the…
Comets and small Kuiper belt objects are considered to be among the most primitive objects in the solar system as comets like C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp are rich in highly volatile ices like CO. It has been suggested that early in the solar system…
Context. The so-called Barbarian asteroids share peculiar, but common polarimetric properties, probably related to both their shape and composition. They are named after (234) Barbara, the first on which such properties were identified. As…
The gravitational pull of a large number of asteroids perturbs a pulsar's motion to a degree that is detectable through precision timing of millisecond pulsars. The result is a low-frequency, correlated noise process, similar in form to the…
Satellites of asteroids have been discovered in nearly every known small body population, and a remarkable aspect of the known satellites is the diversity of their properties. They tell a story of vast differences in formation and evolution…
Evidence for cometary activity beyond Jupiter and Saturn's orbits -- such as that observed for Centaurs and long period comets -- suggests that the thermal processing of comet nuclei starts long before they enter the inner Solar System,…
Since 1995, astronomers have discovered planets with masses comparable to that of Jupiter (318 times Earth's mass) in orbit around approximately 60 stars. Although unseen directly, the presence of these planets is inferred by the small…
Understanding the provenance of CI and CM chondrites, the most primitive materials in our meteorite collections, is critical for shedding light on the Solar System's early evolution and contextualizing findings from recent sample return…
We propose that extrasolar asteroid belts can be detected through their gravitational microlensing signatures. Asteroid belt + star lens systems create so-called "pseudo-caustics", regions in the source plane where the magnification…
The asteroid belt is a unique source of information on some of the most important questions facing solar system science. These questions include the sizes, numbers, types and orbital distributions of the planetesimals that formed the…
Asteroid families are groups of minor bodies produced by high-velocity collisions. After the initial dispersions of the parent bodies fragments, their orbits evolve because of several gravitational and non-gravitational effects,such as…