Related papers: An orbital window into the ancient Sun's mass
Measuring the cosmic ray flux over timescales comparable to the age of the solar system, $\sim 4.5\,$Gyr, could provide a new window on the history of the Earth, the solar system, and even our galaxy. We present a technique to indirectly…
Is the Sun likely to have a more opaque interior than previously thought? The solar oxygen (or abundance) problem can be solved with higher interior opacities, reconciling abundance analyses based on 3D convective atmospheres with the…
Like the solar cycle, stellar activity cycles are also irregular. Observations reveal that rapidly rotating (young) Sun-like stars exhibit a high level of activity with no Maunder-like grand minima and rarely display smooth regular activity…
Mercury, due to its close location to the Sun, is surrounded by an environment whose conditions may be considered as "extreme" in the entire Solar System. Both solar wind and radiation are stronger with respect to other Solar System bodies,…
A growing body of evidence suggests that multiple dynamo mechanisms can drive magnetic variability on different timescales, not only in the Sun but also in other stars. Many solar activity proxies exhibit a quasi-biennial ($\sim$2 year)…
Using an ensemble of N-body simulations, this paper considers the fate of the outer gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) after the Sun leaves the main sequence and completes its stellar evolution. Due to solar mass-loss --…
X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation impacting on a gas produce a variety of effects that, depending on the electron content, may provide a significant heating of the illuminated region. In a planetary atmosphere of solar composition,…
Since the formulation of the problem by Newton, and during three centuries, astronomers and mathematicians have sought to demonstrate the stability of the Solar System. Thanks to the numerical experiments of the last two decades, we know…
Recent observations reveal the surprising breakdown of stellar gyrochronology relations at about the Sun's age hinting that middle-aged, solar-like stars transition to a magnetically inactive future. We provide a theoretical basis for these…
Context. The Sun acts as a cornerstone of stellar physics. Thanks to spectroscopic, helioseismic and neutrino flux observations, we can use the Sun as a laboratory of fundamental physics in extreme conditions. The conclusions we draw are…
As a planet transits the face of a star, it accelerates along the line-of-sight. The changing delay in the propagation of photons produces an apparent deceleration of the planet across the sky throughout the transit. This persistent…
With the recent discoveries of hundreds of extrasolar planets, the search for planets like Earth and life in the universe, is quickly gaining momentum. In the future, large space observatories could directly detect the light scattered from…
Despite decades of scientific research on the subject, the climate of the first 1.5 Gyr of Mars history has not been fully understood yet. Especially challenging is the need to reconcile the presence of liquid water for extended periods of…
Properties of the Sun's interior can be determined accurately from helioseismological measurements of solar oscillations. These measurements, however, are in conflict with photospheric elemental abundances derived using 3-D hydrodynamic…
The solar system's dynamical state can be explained by an orbital instability among the giant planets. A recent model has proposed that the giant planet instability happened during terrestrial planet formation. This scenario has been shown…
Although current sensitivity limits are such that true Solar System analogs remain challenging to detect, numerous planetary systems have been discovered that are very different from our own Solar System. The majority of systems harbor a…
Evolutionary models of pre-main sequence stars remain largely uncalibrated, especially for masses below that of the Sun, making each new dynamical mass and radius measurement a valuable test of theoretical models. Stellar mass dependent…
Atmospheric refraction is responsible for the bending of light-rays in the atmosphere. It is a result of the continuous decrease in the refractive index of the air as a function of altitude. A well-known consequence of this phenomenon is…
Imaging of planets is very difficult, due to the glare from their nearby, much brighter suns. Static and slowly-evolving aberrations are the limiting factors, even after application of adaptive optics. The residual speckle pattern is highly…
Here we explore a novel approach in order to try to measure the post-Newtonian 1/c^2 Lense-Thirring secular effect induced by the gravitomagnetic field of the Sun on the planetary orbital motion. Due to the relative smallness of the solar…