Related papers: The Main Belt Comets and Ice in the Solar System
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…
We present initial results from observations and numerical analyses aimed at characterizing main-belt comet P/2012 T1 (PANSTARRS). Optical monitoring observations were made between October 2012 and February 2013 using the University of…
A fundamental question in cometary science is whether the different dynamical classes of comets have different chemical compositions, which would reflect different initial conditions. From the ground or Earth orbit, radio and infrared…
Deep elemental composition is a challenging measurement to achieve in the giant planets of the solar system. Yet, knowledge of the deep composition offers important insights in the internal structure of these planets, their evolutionary…
The ice-rich dwarf planet Ceres is the largest object in the main asteroid belt and is thought to have a brine or mud layer at a depth of tens of kilometers. Furthermore, recent surface deposits of brine-sourced material imply shallow…
The upsilon Andromedae system was the first multi-planet system discovered orbiting a main sequence star. We describe the detection of water vapor in the atmosphere of the innermost non-transiting gas giant ups~And~b by treating the…
Kuiper belt objects, such as Arrokoth, the probable progenitors of short-period comets, formed and evolved at large heliocentric distances, where the ambient temperatures appear to be sufficiently low for preserving volatile ices. By…
The composition of the dark universe although hypothesised, remains one of the biggest mysteries in modern physics. On smaller scales, there are various solar puzzling phenomena which known physics cannot explain like the coronal heating…
We present Herschel Space Observatory PACS spectra of T Tauri stars, in which we detect amorphous and crystalline water ice features. Using irradiated accretion disk models, we determine the disk structure and ice abundance in each of the…
Understanding the set of conditions that allow rocky planets to have liquid water on their surface -- in the form of lakes, seas or oceans -- is a major scientific step to determine the fraction of planets potentially suitable for the…
A surprisingly large amount of information on our solar system can be gained from simple measurements of the apparent angular diameters of the sun and the moon. This information includes the average density of the sun, the distance between…
Efforts to understand unusual weather or abrupt changes in climate have been plagued by deficiencies of the standard solar model (SSM). While it assumes that our primary source of energy began as a homogeneous ball of hydrogen (H) with a…
Our Solar System includes the Sun, eight major planets and their moons, along with numerous asteroids, comets, and dust particles, collectively known as the small Solar System bodies. Small bodies are relics from the birth of the Solar…
Remote observations of comets, especially using high spectral resolution millimeter spectroscopy, have enabled the detection of over 25 molecules in comets for the last twenty years. Among the molecules identified at radio wavelengths,…
Context. As the Solar System orbits the Milky Way, it encounters various Galactic environments, including dense regions of the interstellar medium (ISM). These encounters can compress the heliosphere, exposing parts of the Solar System to…
The Kuiper Belt of our solar system is a source of short-period comets that may have delivered water and other volatiles to Earth and the other terrestrial planets. However, the distribution of water and other volatiles in extrasolar…
Understanding the physical conditions of dark molecular clouds and star forming regions is an inverse problem subject to complicated chemistry that varies non-linearly with time and the physical environment. In this paper we apply a…
Motivated by ongoing discoveries of features (most likely) attributable to exocomets in various systems, this study examines the dynamics of possible comets around 47 UMa. Based on the assumption that most systems hosting planets should…
Meteor showers on the Earth occur at well known times, and are associated with the decay of comets or other minor bodies whose orbital paths pass close to the Earth's trajectory. On the surface, determining the closest proximity of two…
Extensive photometric stellar surveys show that many main sequence stars show emission at infrared and longer wavelengths that is in excess of the stellar photosphere; this emission is thought to arise from circumstellar dust. The presence…