Related papers: Exploring the Kuiper Belt with Sun-diving Solar Sa…
Interstellar objects (ISOs) represent a compelling and under-explored category of celestial bodies, providing physical laboratories to understand the formation of our solar system and probe the composition and properties of material formed…
We present results of thermal evolution calculations for objects originating in the Kuiper belt and transferring inwards, to the region of the outer planets. Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) are considered to be part of a reservoir that supplies…
All surveys include observational biases, which makes it impossible to directly compare properties of discovered trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) with dynamical models. However, by carefully keeping track of survey pointings on the sky,…
Discovered in October 2017, the interstellar object designated 1I/'Oumuamua was the first such object to be observed travelling through our solar system. 1I/'Oumuamua has other characteristics never seen before in a celestial body and…
To develop a spacefaring civilization, humankind must develop technologies which enable safe, affordable and repeatable mobility through the solar system. One such technology is nuclear fusion propulsion which is at present under study…
The novel propellantless electric solar wind sail concept promises efficient low thrust transportation in the Solar System outside Earth's magnetosphere. Combined with asteroid mining to provide water and synthetic cryogenic rocket fuel in…
Given the large orbital separation and high satellite-to-primary mass ratio of all known Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) binaries, it is important to reassess their stability as bound pairs with respect to several disruptive mechanisms. Besides…
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…
Theoretical aspects of a solar sail material degradation are presented when the solar electromagnetic and corpuscular forms of radiation were considered as sources of degradation. The analysis of the interaction of two components of solar…
This paper reviews coagulation models for planet formation in the Kuiper Belt, emphasizing links to recent observations of our and other solar systems. At heliocentric distances of 35-50 AU, single annulus and multiannulus planetesimal…
Exploring and traveling to distant stars has long fascinated humanity but has been limited due to the vast distances. The Breakthrough Starshot Program aims at eliminating this limitation by traveling to Alpha Centauri, which is 4.37…
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…
The Solar Close Observations and Proximity Experiments (SCOPE) mission will send a spacecraft into the solar atmosphere at a low altitude of just 5 R_sun from the solar center. It aims to elucidate the mechanisms behind solar eruptions and…
The orbital evolution and stability of planetary systems with interaction from the belts is studied using the standard phase-plane analysis. In addition to the fixed point which corresponds to the Keplerian orbit, there are other fixed…
We summarise the scientific and technological aspects of the SAGAS (Search for Anomalous Gravitation using Atomic Sensors) project, submitted to ESA in June 2007 in response to the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 call for proposals. The proposed…
We show that a wide-field Kepler-like satellite in Solar orbit could obtain microlens parallaxes for several thousand events per year that are identified from the ground, yielding masses and distances for several dozen planetary events.…
When a main sequence star evolves into a red giant and its Kuiper Belt Object's (KBO's) reach a temperature of about 170 K, the dust released during the rapid ice-sublimation of these cometary bodies may lead to a detectable infrared excess…
We consider the application of interferometry to measuring the sizes and shapes of small bodies in the solar system that cannot be spatially resolved by today's single-dish telescopes. Assuming ellipsoidal shapes, our results indicate that…
Voyager 3 is a concept mission that sends a space telescope to the interstellar medium in a reasonable amount of time. Voyager 3 would take a direct image of an exoplanet using the solar gravitational lensing at the distance of 550…
Recent observations indicate that >99% of the small bodies in the Solar System reside in its outer reaches --- in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. Kuiper Belt bodies are probably the best preserved representatives of the icy planetesimals…