Related papers: The Main Belt Comets and Ice in the Solar System
Comets are pristine remnants of the Solar system, composed of dust and ice. They remain inactive and undetectable for most of their orbit due to low temperatures. However, as they approach the Sun, volatile materials sublimate, expelling…
While it is possible to estimate the dark matter density at the Sun distance from the galactic center, this does not give information on actual dark matter density in the Solar system. There can be considerable local enhancement of dark…
The size distribution and total mass of objects in the Oort Cloud have important implications to the theory of planets formation, including the properties of, and the processes taking place in the early solar system. We discuss the…
Determining the distribution and spectral signature of volatile ices and organics exposed on icy body surfaces can provide crucial clues for deciphering how the outer solar system formed and evolved. Over the past few decades, ground- and…
(Abridged) Astronomical observations have shown that protoplanetary disks are dynamic objects through which mass is transported and accreted by the central star. Age dating of meteorite constituents shows that their creation, evolution, and…
Motivated by recent visits from interstellar comets, along with continuing discoveries of minor bodies in orbit of the Sun, this paper studies the capture of objects on initially hyperbolic orbits by our solar system. Using an ensemble of…
The densities of mid-sized Kuiper belt objects are a key constraint into understanding the assembly of objects in the outer solar system. These objects are critical for understanding the currently unexplained transition from the smallest…
In the context of current and future microwave surveys mainly dedicated to the accurate mapping of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), mm and sub-mm emissions from Solar System will represent a potential source of contamination as well as an…
Evidence from a variety of sources points towards the existence of a bar in the central few kpc of the Galaxy. The measurements roughly agree on the direction of the bar major axis, but other parameters (axis ratio, size, pattern speed) are…
We present the comparison of the three most important ice constituents (water, CO and CO2) in the envelopes of massive Young Stellar Objects (YSOs), in environments of different metallicities: the Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)…
In this paper we discuss the astronomical search for water vapor in order to understand the disposition of water in all its phases throughout the process of star and planet formation. Our ability to detect and study water vapor has recently…
Measuring the depth variation of the meridional flows is important for understanding the solar cycle, at least according to a number of dynamo models. While attempting to extend the early observations of \citet{giles_thesis} of…
Rings are ubiquitous around giant planets in our Solar System. They evolve jointly with the nearby satellite system. They could form either during the giant planet formation process or much later, as a result of large scale dynamical…
Compared with previous space-borne surveys, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) provides a unique and new approach to observe Solar System objects. While its primary mission avoids the vicinity of the ecliptic plane by…
The dust produced in the Kuiper Belt (KB) spreads throughout the Solar System forming a dust disk. We numerically model the orbital evolution of KB dust and estimate its equilibrium spatial distribution and its brightness and spectral…
Debris disks are tenuous, dust-dominated disks commonly observed around stars over a wide range of ages. Those around main sequence stars are analogous to the Solar System's Kuiper Belt and Zodiacal light. The dust in debris disks is…
Chondritic meteorites constitute the most ancient rock record available in the laboratory to study the formation of the solar system and its planets. Detailed investigations of their mineralogy, petrography, chemistry and isotopic…
Objects in the Kuiper belt are small and far away thus difficult to study in detail even with the best telescopes available at earth. For much of the early history of the Kuiper belt, studies of the compositions of these objects were…
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…
Polluted white dwarfs are generally accreting terrestrial-like material that may originate from a debris belt like the asteroid belt in the solar system. The fraction of white dwarfs that are polluted drops off significantly for white…