Related papers: Liberating exomoons in white dwarf planetary syste…
High-metallicity pollution is common in white dwarf (WD) stars hosting remnant planetary systems. However, they rarely have detectable debris accretion discs, possibly because much of the influx is fast steeply-infalling debris in…
The loss and gain of volatile elements during planet formation is key for setting their subsequent climate, geodynamics, and habitability. Two broad regimes of volatile element transport in and out of planetary building blocks have been…
Warm giant planets with orbital periods of tens of days exhibit a positive correlation between mass and eccentricity. We interpret this trend as the outcome of planet-planet scattering, representing a transition from collision-dominated…
The large eccentricities of many giant extrasolar planets may represent the endpoint of gravitational scattering in initially more crowded systems. If so, the early evolution of the giant planets is likely to be more restrictive of…
Dynamically active planetary systems orbit a significant fraction of white dwarf stars. These stars often exhibit surface metals accreted from debris disks, which are detected through infrared excess or transiting structures. However, the…
Gas giant planets in the Solar system host large satellite systems with multiple regular and irregular moons. Regular moons revolve around their host planet in circular, low inclination short period orbits, and are thought to form in-situ…
Recent discoveries of extrasolar planets at small orbital radii, or with significant eccentricities, indicate that interactions between massive planets and the disks of gas and dust from which they formed are vital for determining the final…
The timing of formation for the first planetesimals determines the mode of planetary accretion and their geophysical and compositional evolution. Astronomical observations of circumstellar discs and Solar System geochronology provide…
White dwarfs (WDs) often show metal lines in their spectra, indicating accretion of asteroidal material. Our Sun is to become a WD in several Gyr. Here, we examine how the solar WD accretes from the three major small body populations: the…
Practically all known planet hosts will evolve into white dwarfs, and large parts of their planetary systems will survive this transition - the same is true for the solar system beyond the orbit of Mars. Spectroscopy of white dwarfs…
Polluted white dwarfs offer a unique way to directly probe the compositions of exoplanetary bodies. We examine the water content of accreted material using the oxygen abundances of 51 highly polluted white dwarfs. Within this sample, we…
Following the discovery of the first exoplanet candidate transiting a white dwarf (WD), a "white dwarf opportunity" for characterizing the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets around WDs is emerging. Large planet-to-star size ratios and…
Planets and stars ultimately form out of the collapse of the same cloud of gas. Whilst planets, and planetary bodies, readily loose volatiles, a common hypothesis is that they retain the same refractory composition as their host star. This…
This paper investigates the frequency of transiting planetary systems around metal-polluted white dwarfs using high-cadence photometry from ULTRACAM and ULTRASPEC on the ground, and space-based observations with TESS. Within a sample of 313…
A planetary system can undergo multiple episodes of intense dynamical activities throughout its life, resulting in the production of star-grazing planetesimals (or exocomets) and pollution of the host star. Such activity is especially…
Understanding the fate of planetary systems through white dwarfs which accrete debris crucially relies on tracing the orbital and physical properties of exo-asteroids during the giant branch phase of stellar evolution. Giant branch…
A large fraction of white dwarfs are accreting or have recently accreted rocky material from their planetary systems, thereby polluting their atmospheres with elements heavier than helium. In recent years, the quest for mechanisms that can…
Aims. Particles ejected from the lunar surface via hypervelocity impacts form a torus between the Earth and the Moon. According to our previous study (Yang et al., A\&A, 659, A120), among them about $2.3\times10^{-4}\,\mathrm{kg/s}$…
Understanding stellar evolution and its effect on planetary systems is crucial for correctly interpreting the chemical constraints of exo-planetary material that can be given to us by white dwarfs. This article will describe how asteroids,…
Most of the observed extrasolar planets are found on tight and often eccentric orbits. The high eccentricities are not easily explained by planet-formation models, which predict that planets should be on rather circular orbits. Here we…