Related papers: Temporary Capture of Asteroids by an Eccentric Pla…
We extend our study of the extent of the regions within the $\alpha$ Centauri AB star system where small planets are able to orbit for billion-year timescales (Quarles & Lissauer 2016, AJ 151, 111) to investigate the effects of minimizing…
We obtain approximate analytic expressions for the critical value of the total angular momentum of a non-relativistic test particle moving in the Kerr geometry, such that it will be captured by the black hole. The expressions apply to…
The observed properties of transiting exoplanets are an exceptionally rich source of information that allows us to understand and characterize their physical properties. Unfortunately, only a relatively small fraction of the known…
Eccentricity or obliquity tides have been proposed as the missing energy source that may explain the anomalously large radius of some transiting ``hot Jupiters''. To maintain a non-zero and large obliquity, it was argued that the planets…
In this paper, we show that the eccentricity of a planet on an inclined orbit with respect to a disc can be pumped up to high values by the gravitational potential of the disc, even when the orbit of the planet crosses the disc plane. This…
We derive analytical expressions for the change in the orbital eccentricity of a binary following a distant encounter with a third star on a hyperbolic or parabolic orbit. To establish the accuracy of these expressions, we present detailed…
The known population of exoplanets exhibits a much wider range of orbital eccentricities than Solar System planets and has a much higher average eccentricity. These facts have been widely interpreted to indicate that the Solar System is an…
Long-period transiting exoplanets provide an opportunity to study the mass-radius relation and internal structure of extrasolar planets. Their studies grant insights into planetary evolution akin to the Solar System planets, which, in…
The interaction between a planet located in the inner region of a disc and the warped outer region is studied. We consider the stage of evolution after the planet has cleared-out a gap, so that the planetary orbit evolves only under the…
Motivated by recent measurements of the free-floating planet mass function at terrestrial masses, we consider the possibility that the solar system may have captured a terrestrial planet early in its history. We show that $\sim 1.2$…
A self-consistent, adiabatic model for the {\it long-time} behaviour of tidal capture binaries is presented. It is shown that most capture orbits behave chaotically, with the eccentricity following a quasi-random walk between the values of…
The origin of hot Jupiters remains a key open question. In the high-eccentricity migration scenario, traditional coreless models predict a strict tidal exclusion zone within $\sim 2.7$ tidal radii $r_\textrm{t}$, in which giant planets are…
I consider the current sample of galaxy nuclei producing quasiperiodic eruptions (QPEs). If the quasiperiod results from the orbital motion of a star around the central black hole, the dearth of associated black hole masses $\gtrsim…
We argue that all transient searches for planets in globular clusters have a very low detection probability. Planets of low metallicity stars typically do not reside at small orbital separations. The dependance of planetary system…
The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) proposes to retrieve a near-Earth asteroid and position it in a lunar distant retrograde orbit (DRO) for later study, crewed exploration, and ultimately resource exploitation. During the Caltech Space…
We present here the first observationally based determination of the rate of occurrence of circumbinary planets. This is derived from the publicly available Kepler data, using an automated search algorithm and debiasing process to produce…
We review three main results of our recent study: * We show that a proper treatment of the tidal interaction prior to the onset of the common envelope (CE) leads to an enhance mass loss. This might increase the survivability of planets and…
The eccentricity of a planet's orbit and the inclination of its orbital plane encode important information about its formation and history. However, exoplanets detected via direct-imaging are often only observed over a very small fraction…
For many years, it was assumed that Jupiter prevented the Earth from being subject to a punishing impact regime that would greatly hinder the development of life. Here, we present the 4th in a series of studies investigating this…
Exploring planetary systems similar to our solar system can provide a means to explore a large range of possibly temperate climates on Earth-like worlds. Rather than run hundreds of simulations with different eccentricities at fixed…