Related papers: A rapid decrease in the rotation rate of comet 41P…
According to Munoz-Gutierrez et al. (2015) the orbit of comet 1P/Halley is chaotic with a surprisingly small Lyapunov time scale of order its orbital period. In this work we analyse the origin of chaos in Halley's orbit and the growth of…
The apparent splitting between orbitals that are spin-orbit partners can be substantially influenced by the effects of finite binding. In particular, such effects can account for the observed decrease in separation of the neutron $1p_{3/2}$…
As a comet, asteroid or planet approaches its parent star, the orbit changes shape due to the curvature of spacetime. For comets in particular, the deviation at the pericentre may noticeably change their ephemerides and affect the dynamics…
Vortices are readily produced by hydrodynamical instabilities, such as the Rossby wave instability, in protoplanetary disks. However, large-scale asymmetries indicative of dust-trapping vortices are uncommon in sub-millimeter continuum…
Several low--mass galaxy nuclei are observed to produce quasiperiodic eruptions (QPEs). Recently one of these systems, 1ES~1927+654, changed its quasiperiod drastically, from $\sim 18$ minutes to $\sim 7.1$ minutes, over a span of just two…
Encke-type comet 332P/Ikeya-Murakami is experiencing cascading fragmentation events during its 2016 apparition. It is likely the first splitting Encke-type comet ever being observed. A nongravitational solution to the astrometry reveals a…
We present results from CCD observations of comet 2P/Encke acquired at Steward Observatory's 2.3m Bok Telescope on Kitt Peak obtained in Oct. 2002, when the comet was near aphelion. Rotational lightcurves in B, V and R-filters were acquired…
Comet 103P/Hartley 2 made a close approach to the Earth in October 2010. It was the target of an extensive observing campaign and was visited by the Deep Impact spacecraft (mission EPOXI). We present observations of HCN and CH3OH emission…
We study the role of spin-down in driving quark deconfinement in the high density core of isolated neutron stars. Assuming spin-down to be solely due to magnetic braking, we obtain typical timescales to quark deconfinement for neutron stars…
Short-period comet 108P/Ciffreo is known for its peculiar double morphology, in which the nucleus is accompanied by a co-moving, detached, diffuse 'blob'. We report new observations of 108P/Ciffreo taken with the Hubble Space Telescope and…
Using a highly accurate numerical code, we study the spin down of rotating relativistic stars, undergoing a quark deconfinement phase transition. Such phase transitions have been suggested to yield an observable signal in the braking index…
The orbital evolution of more than 22000 Jupiter-crossing objects under the gravitational influence of planets was investigated. We found that the mean collision probabilities of Jupiter-crossing objects (from initial orbits close to the…
Rotation in massive stars has been studied on the main sequence and during helium burning for decades, but only recently have realistic numerical simulations followed the transport of angular momentum that occurs during more advanced stages…
Most transiting planets orbit very close to their parent star, causing strong tidal forces between the two bodies. Tidal interaction can modify the dynamics of the system through orbital alignment, circularisation, synchronisation, and…
Depending on mass and rotational frequency, gravity compresses the matter in the core regions of neutron stars to densities that are several times higher than the density of ordinary atomic nuclei. At such huge densities atoms themselves…
Comets hold the key to the understanding of our solar system, its formation and its evolution, and to the fundamental plasma processes at work both in it and beyond it. A comet nucleus emits gas as it is heated by the sunlight. The gas…
The present obliquity of Mercury is very low (less than 0.1 degree), which led previous studies to always adopt a nearly zero obliquity during the planet's past evolution. However, the initial orientation of Mercury's rotation axis is…
We present new analyses of the photometric lightcurve of Comet 1P/Halley during its 1985/86 apparition. As part of a world-wide campaign coordinated by the International Halley Watch (IHW), narrowband photometry was obtained with telescopes…
The equilibrium rotation rate of a planet is determined by the sum of torques acting on its solid body. For planets with atmospheres, the dominant torques are usually the gravitational tide, which acts to slow the planet's rotation rate,…
The 4.2-day orbit of the newly discovered planet around 51~Pegasi is formally unstable to tidal dissipation. However, the orbital decay time in this system is longer than the main-sequence lifetime of the central star. Given our best…