Related papers: Ninth Planet or Wandering Star ?
Close-in planets are in jeopardy as their host stars evolve off the main sequence to the subgiant and red giant phases. In this paper, we explore the influences of the stellar mass (in the range 1.5--2\Mso ), mass-loss prescription, planet…
The recent discovery of a planet in an orbit with eccentricity $e = 0.63 \pm 0.08$ around the Solar-type star 16 Cyg B, together with earlier discoveries of other planets in orbits of significant eccentricity, raises the question of the…
At gravitational interactions of bodies and particles there appears the defect of masses, i.e. the energy yields since the bodies (or particles) are attracted. It is shown that this changing of the effective mass of the body (or the…
This paper reports the discovery and orbital characterization of two extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs), 2016 QV$_{89}$ and 2016 QU$_{89}$, which have orbits that appear similar to that of a previously known object, 2013 UH$_{15}$. All…
(Abridged) The solar system gas giant planets are oblate due to their rapid rotation. A measurement of the planet's projected oblateness would constrain the planet's rotational period. Planets that are synchronously rotating with their…
Since the discovery of the first extrasolar giant planets around Sun-like stars, evolving observational capabilities have brought us closer to the detection of true Earth analogues. The size of an exoplanet can be determined when it…
Stellar occultations provide a powerful tool to explore objects of the outer solar system. The Gaia mission now provides milli-arcsec accuracy on the predictions of these events and makes possible observations that were previously…
When extrasolar planets are observed to transit their parent stars, we are granted unprecedented access to their physical properties. It is only for transiting planets that we are permitted direct estimates of the planetary masses and…
The population of the Kuiper Belt within 50 AU of the Sun has likely been severely depleted by gravitational perturbations from the giant planets, particularly Neptune. The density of Kuiper Belt objects is expected to be two orders of…
We study the motion of a secondary celestial body under the influence of the corrected gravitational force of a primary. We study the effect of quantum and relativistic corrections to the gravitational potential of a primary body acting on…
The bright K1 III-IV star gamma Cep has been reported previously to have a companion in a 2.5-yr orbit that is possibly substellar, and also has a stellar companion at a larger separation that has never been seen. Here we determine for the…
The trans-Neptunian region of the solar system exhibits an intricate dynamical structure, much of which can be explained by an instability-driven orbital history of the giant planets. However, the origins of a highly inclined, and in…
We investigate the stability of strange quark matter and the properties of the cor- responding strange stars, within a wide range of quark mass scaling. The calculation shows that the resulting maximum mass always lies between 1.5M_{sun}…
A resultant gravitational force due to the current estimates of the virial mass of the Milky Way galaxy, dominated by dark matter, is estimated near the Sun and is described in two different analytical models yielding consistent results.…
We explore what may be learned by close encounters between extrasolar minor bodies like `Oumuamua and the Sun. These encounters may yield strong constraints on the bulk composition and possible origin of `Oumuamua-like objects. We find that…
Some measurable characteristic timescales $\left\{t_\mathrm{trn}\right\}$ of transiting exoplanets are investigated in order to check preliminarily if their cumulative shifts over the years induced by the post-Newtonian (pN) gravitoelectric…
A simple dynamical model is employed to study the possible orbital evolution of scattered planets and phase plane analysis is used to classify the parameter space and solutions. Our results reconfirm that there is always an increase in…
This paper studies the effects of dynamical interactions among the planets in observed extrasolar planetary systems, including hypothetical additional bodies, with a focus on secular perturbations. These interactions cause the…
The Sun's gradual brightening will seriously compromise the Earth's biosphere within ~ 1E9 years. If Earth's orbit migrates outward, however, the biosphere could remain intact over the entire main-sequence lifetime of the Sun. In this…
Rapidly rotating giant stars are relatively rare and may represent important stages of stellar evolution, resulting from stellar coalescence of close binary systems or accretion of sub-stellar companions by their hosting stars. In the…