Related papers: Medium-sized satellites of large Kuiper belt objec…

Near Earth Objects (NEOs) are fragments of remnant primitive bodies that date from the era of Solar System formation. At present, the physical properties and origins of NEOs are poorly understood. We have measured thermal emission from…

We present astrometric observations of the Saturnian satellites Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea from Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) narrow-angle camera (NAC) images. Image sequences were designed to observe mutual…

The rotational states of the members in the dwarf planet - satellite systems in the transneptunian region are determined by the formation conditions and the tidal interaction between the components, and these rotational characteristics are…

All four giant planets in the Solar system possess irregular satellites, characterized by large, highly eccentric and/or inclined orbits that are distinct from the nearly circular, uninclined orbits of the regular satellites. This…

The mean apparent magnitude of the Qianfan satellites is 5.76 +/- 0.04, while the mean of magnitudes adjusted to a distance of 1,000 km is 5.24 +/- 0.04, based on 1,161 observations. Light curves of several spacecraft display rapid periodic…

We examine a large collection of low resolution near-infrared spectra of Kuiper belt objects and centaurs in an attempt to understand the presence of water ice in the Kuiper belt. We find that water ice on the surface of these objects…

We numerically investigate the possibility that a close stellar encounter could account for the high inclinations of the Kuiper belt, as originally proposed by Ida, Larwood and Burkert, however we consider encounters with pericenters within…

The satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (MW) define a vast polar structure (VPOS), a thin plane perpendicular to the MW disc. Proper motion (PM) measurements are now available for all of the 11 brightest, `classical' satellites and allow an…

We describe calculations of the evolution of an ensemble of small planetesimals in the outer solar system. In a solar nebula with a mass of several times the Minimum Mass Solar Nebula, objects with radii of 100-1000 km can form on…

Here we show that Iapetus can serve to discriminate between satellite formation models. Its accretion history can be understood in terms of a two-component gaseous subnebula, with a relatively dense inner region, and an extended tail out to…

Long-baseline optical interferometers can now detect and resolve hot dust emission thought to arise at the inner edge of circumstellar disks around young stellar objects (YSOs). We argue that the near-infrared sizes being measured are…

Haumea, a rapidly rotating elongated dwarf planet (~ 1500 km in diameter), has two satellites and is associated with a "family" of several smaller Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) in similar orbits. All members of the Haumea system share a water…

We have measured the mid-infrared thermal continua from two Centaurs, inactive (8405) Asbolus and active 95P=(2060) Chiron, and have constrained their geometric albedos, p, and effective radii, R, with the Standard Thermal Model for slow…

Self-consistent simulations of the dynamical evolution of a low-mass satellite galaxy without dark matter are reported. The orbits have eccentricities 0.46 <= e <= 0.96 in a Galactic dark halo resembling our Milky Way. For the simulations,…

We report the discovery of two adjacent jet candidates with a length of about 9 degrees each -- 10 times longer than the largest known jets -- detected by us on 60 and 100 micron IRAS maps, but not observed at any other wavelength. They are…

The mean of 830 visual magnitudes adjusted to a distance of 550 km (the operational altitude) is 4.63 +/-0.02. The data on DarkSat, the low-albedo satellite, indicate that it is fainter than the others by 1.6 magnitudes or 78%. However,…

Extrasolar debris disks are the dust disks found around nearby main sequence stars arising from the break-up of asteroids and comets orbiting the stars. Far-IR surveys (e.g., with Herschel) showed that ~20% of stars host detectable dust…

The far-infrared (FIR) is one of the few wavelength ranges where no astronomical data with sub-arcsec resolution exist yet. Neither of the medium-term satellite projects like SPICA, Millimetron or OST will resolve this malady. Information…

(Abridged) New optical colors of 58 objects in mean motion resonances with Neptune show the various resonant populations have significantly different color distributions. The 5:3 and 7:4 resonances have semi-major axes near the middle of…

We present the first spectroscopic analysis of the faint M31 satellite galaxies, AndXI and AndXIII, and a reanalysis of existing spectroscopic data for two further faint companions, And IX and AndXII. By combining data obtained using the…