Related papers: Stability and self-organization of planetary syste…
The physical basis of chaos in the solar system is now better understood: in all cases investigated so far, chaotic orbits result from overlapping resonances. Perhaps the clearest examples are found in the asteroid belt. Overlapping…
The ability of a planet to maintain surface water, key to life as we know it, depends on solar and planetary energy. As a star ages, it delivers more energy to a planet. As a planet ages it produces less internal heat, which leads to…
The Sun's equator and the planets' orbital planes are nearly aligned, which is presumably a consequence of their formation from a single spinning gaseous disk. For exoplanetary systems this well-aligned configuration is not guaranteed:…
Most mechanisms proposed for the formation of planets are modified versions of the mechanism proposed for the solar system. Here we argue that, in terms of those planetary systems which have been observed, the case for the solar system…
We study the dynamics of planetary systems with two planets moving in the same plane, when frictional forces act on the two planets, in addition to the gravitational forces. The model of the general three-body problem is used. Different…
I argue that the widely adopted framework of stellar dynamics survived since 1940s, is not fitting the current knowledge on non-linear systems. Borrowed from plasma physics when several fundamental features of perturbed non-linear systems…
Changes in planetary obliquity, or axial tilt, influence the climates on Earth-like planets. In the solar system, the Earth's obliquity is stabilized due to interactions with our moon and the resulting {small amplitude variations…
The present dynamical configuration of planets in binary star systems may not reflect their formation process since the binary orbit may have changed in the past after the planet formation process was completed. An observed binary system…
Orbital resonances are ubiquitous in the Solar system. They play a decisive role in the long term dynamics, and in some cases the physical evolution, of the planets and of their natural satellites, as well as the evolution of small bodies…
Dynamical instabilities among giant planets are thought to be nearly ubiquitous, and culminate in the ejection of one or more planets into interstellar space. Here we perform N-body simulations of dynamical instabilities while accounting…
The well-defined but intricate course of time evolution exhibited by many naturally occurring phenomena suggests some source of dynamic order sustaining it. In spite of its obviousness as a problem, it has remained absent from the…
We investigate the orbital stability of a tilted circumbinary planetary system with three giant planets. The planets are spaced by a constant number ($\Delta$) of mutual Hill radii in the range $\Delta=3.4-12.0$ such that the period ratio…
Spatial distribution of the human population is distinctly heterogeneous, e.g. showing significant difference in the population density between urban and rural areas. In the historical perspective, i.e. on the timescale of centuries, the…
Stationary stellar systems with radially elongated orbits are subject to radial orbit instability -- an important phenomenon that structures galaxies. Antonov (1973) presented a formal proof of the instability for spherical systems in the…
Exoplanetary systems that contain multiple planets on short-period orbits appear to be prevalent in the current observed exoplanetary population, yet the processes that give rise to such configurations remain poorly understood. A common…
The Earth itself is not stationary but keeps revolving, and its motion further satisfies the law of equal area according to the heliocentric doctrine. That satisfaction can be used to construct the mathematical relationships between the…
The discovery of over 400 extrasolar planets allows us to statistically test our understanding of formation and dynamics of planetary systems via numerical simulations. Traditional N-body simulations of multiple-planet systems without gas…
We consider the evolution of a system containing a population of massive planets formed rapidly through a fragmentation process occurring on a scale on the order of 100 au and a lower mass planet that assembles in a disc on a much longer…
The Kepler planet candidates are an interesting testbed for planet formation scenarios. We present results from N-body simulations of multi-planetary systems that resemble those observed by Kepler. We add both smooth (Type I/II) and…
Just two of 10 extrasolar planets found by microlensing have been detected by the planetary caustic despite the higher probability of planet detection relative to the central caustic which has been responsible for four extrasolar planet…