Related papers: Binary Survival in the Outer Solar System
We use high resolution 3D SPH simulations to study the evolution of self-gravitating binary protoplanetary disks. Heating by shocks and cooling are included. We consider different orbital separations and masses of the disks and central…
We have investigated i) the formation of gravitationally bounded pairs of gas-giant planets (which we call "binary planets") from capturing each other through planet-planet dynamical tide during their close encounters and ii) the following…
A planet hardly ever survives the supernova of the host star in a bound orbit, because mass loss in the supernova and the natal kick imparted to the newly formed compact object cause the planet to be ejected. A planet in orbit around a…
Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with diameter d>100 km moving now in not very eccentric orbits could be formed directly by the compression of large rarefied dust condensations (with semi-major axes a>30 AU), but not by the accretion of…
We report high precision photometry of three small and one larger Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (ACS/HST). The three small bodies are the smallest KBOs for which…
A recent examination of K2 lightcurves indicates that ~15% of Jupiter Trojans have very slow rotation (spin periods Ps>100 h). Here we consider the possibility that these bodies formed as equal-size binaries in the massive outer disk at…
Outer satellites of the planets have distant, eccentric orbits that can be highly inclined or even retrograde relative to the equatorial planes of their planets. These irregular orbits cannot have formed by circumplanetary accretion and are…
We present the results of hydrodynamic simulations examining migration and growth of planets embedded in self-gravitating circumbinary discs. The binary star parameters are chosen to mimic those of the Kepler-16, -34 and -35 systems; the…
Close binary systems present challenges to planet formation. As binary separations decrease, so too do the occurrence rates of protoplanetary disks in young systems and planets in mature systems. For systems that do retain disks, their disk…
Using Non-Redundant Mask interferometry (NRM), we searched for binary companions to objects previously classified as Transitional Disks (TD). These objects are thought to be an evolutionary stage between an optically thick disk and…
To date, several exoplanets have been discovered orbiting stars with close binary companions (a~<30 AU). The fact that planets can form in these dynamically challenging environments implies that planet formation must be a robust process.…
The Kuiper Belt (KB) region of the solar system, stretching from 30 to at least 50 AU, contains Pluto-Charon, some ~105 Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) larger than 100 km in diameter, and myriad smaller bodies produced by collisions among KBOs…
We report the discovery, tracking and detection circumstances for 85 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) from the first 42 deg$^{2}$ of the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS). This ongoing $r$-band Solar System survey uses the 0.9…
Dozens of planets and brown dwarfs are known to orbit one component of tight stellar binaries ($a_{\rm bin} \lesssim 20$ au), despite circumstellar discs in such systems being truncated to radii of only $\sim (0.2-5)$ au. This presents a…
All four circumbinary (CB) protoplanetary disks orbiting short-period ($P < 20$ day) double-lined spectroscopic binaries (SB2s)---a group that includes UZ Tau E, for which we present new ALMA data---exhibit sky-plane inclinations $i_{\rm…
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 dust disks observed around mature stars are evidence that plantesimals are present in these systems on spatial scales that are similar to that of the asteroids and the KBOs in the Solar System. These dust disks (a.k.a. ``debris disks'')…
The recent years have witnessed a carnival of discoveries in the Outer Solar System. Here we provide evidence from numerical simulations of orbital stability to suggest the possible existence of two long lived belts of primordial…
Star-forming regions, characterized by dense environments, experience frequent encounters that significantly influence binary systems, leading to their hardening, softening, or ionization. We extend the Hut \& Bahcall formalism to derive an…
The Orion BN/KL complex is the nearest site of ongoing high-mass star formation. Recent proper motion observations provide convincing evidence of a recent (about 500 years ago) dynamical interaction between two massive young stellar objects…