Related papers: The Orbit of Planet Nine Derived from Engineering …
There are hints of a novel object ("Planet 9") with a mass $5-10$ $M_\oplus$ in the outer Solar System, at a distance of order 500 AU. If it is a relatively conventional planet, it can be found in telescopic searches. Alternatively, it has…
The terrestrial planets formed by accretion of asteroid-like objects within the inner solar system's protoplanetary disk. Previous works have found that forming a small-mass Mars requires the disk to contain little mass beyond ~1.5 au…
We propose that the eccentricity and sharpness of the edge of Fomalhaut's disk are due to a planet just interior to the ring edge. The collision timescale consistent with the disk opacity is long enough that spiral density waves cannot be…
We investigate the physical characteristics of the Solar System's proposed Planet Nine using modeling tools with a heritage in studying Uranus and Neptune. For a range of plausible masses and interior structures, we find upper limits on the…
The organization of the orbits of most minor bodies in the Solar system seems to follow random patterns, the result of billions of years of chaotic dynamical evolution. Much as heterogeneous orbital behaviour is ubiquitous, dynamically…
The presence of a second planet in a known, transiting-planet system will cause the time between transits to vary. These variations can be used to constrain the orbital elements and mass of the perturbing planet. We analyse the set of…
The trans-Neptunian scattered disk exhibits unexpected dynamical structure, ranging from an extended dispersion of perihelion distance to a clustered distribution in orbital angles. Self-gravitational modulation of the scattered disk has…
The Kepler-9 system harbors three known transiting planets. The system holds significant interest for several reasons. First, the outer two planets exhibit a period ratio that is close to a 2:1 orbital commensurability, with attendant…
The spin-orbit obliquity of a planetary system constraints its formation history. A large obliquity may either indicate a primordial misalignment between the star and its gaseous disk or reflect the effect of different mechanisms tilting…
It has been suggested that a gravitational slingshot from the hypothetical Planet 9 (P9) could explain the unusually large velocity of meteor CNEOS 2014-01-08. I show that this explanation does not work because P9 can at most provide an…
The transits of a planet on a Keplerian orbit occur at time intervals exactly equal to the period of the orbit. If a second planet is introduced the orbit is not Keplerian and the transits are no longer exactly periodic. We compute the…
The recent 'Planet Nine' hypothesis has led to many observational and archival searches for this giant planet proposed to orbit the Sun at hundreds of astronomical units. While trans-Neptunian object searches are typically conducted in the…
The significant orbital eccentricities of most giant extrasolar planets may have their origin in the gravitational dynamics of initially unstable multiple planet systems. In this work, we explore the dynamics of two close planets on…
Previous studies have shown that planets that rotate retrograde (backwards with respect to their orbital motion) generally experience less severe obliquity variations than those that rotate prograde (the same direction as their orbital…
We re-analyze the global orbital architecture and dynamical stability of the $\mu$ Arae planetary system. We have updated the best-fit elements and minimal masses of the planets based on literature radial velocity (RV) measurements, now…
The late-stage formation of giant planetary systems is rich in interesting dynamical mechanisms. Previous simulations of three giant planets initially on quasi-circular and quasi-coplanar orbits in the gas disc have shown that highly…
This paper assesses if the Planet 9 hypothesis, the existence of a ninth planet, is consistent with the planetary hypothesis, the synchronization of sunspot emergence to solar inertial motion (SIM) induced by the planets. We show that SIM…
Winds from short-period Earth and Neptune mass exoplanets, driven by high energy radiation from a young star, may evaporate a significant fraction of a planet's mass. If the momentum flux from the evaporative wind is not aligned with the…
The new discoveries of circumbinary planetary systems shed light on the understanding of planetary system formation. Learning the architectural properties of these systems is essential for constraining the different formation mechanisms. We…
To improve our understanding of orbital instabilities in compact planetary systems, we compare suites of $N$-body simulations against numerical integrations of simplified dynamical models. We show that, surprisingly, dynamical models that…