Related papers: Tether Capture of spacecraft at Neptune
The dynamical structure of the Kuiper belt can be used as a clue to the formation and evolution of the Solar System, planetary systems in general, and Neptune's early orbital history in particular. The problem is best addressed by forward…
Sub-Neptunes and Neptunes are often modeled with distinct, fully convective layers. Yet, there are several arguments for compositions gradients that can inhibit convection. In these regions, energy transport depends on the thermal…
Absorption of stellar X-ray and Extreme Ultraviolet radiation in the upper atmosphere of close-in exoplanets can give rise to hydrodynamic outflows, which may lead to the gradual shedding of their primordial, light element envelopes. Excess…
Planets undergoing convergent migration can be captured into mean-motion resonance (MMR), in which the planets' periods are related by integer ratios. The dynamics of MMR are typically considered in isolation, including only the forces…
Recently, Near Earth Objects (NEOs) have been attracting great attention, and thousands of NEOs have been found to date. This paper examines the NEOs' orbital dynamics using the framework of an accurate solar system model and a…
Aerocapture is the technique of using planetary atmospheres to decelerate a spacecraft in a single pass to achieve nearly fuel-free orbit insertion. Aerocapture has been extensively studied since the 1980s but has never been flown yet. The…
There is ever growing demand for satellite constellations that perform global positioning, remote sensing, earth-imaging and relay communication. In these highly prized orbits, there are many obsolete and abandoned satellites and components…
Neutron captures produce the vast majority of abundances of elements heavier than iron in the Universe. Beyond the classical slow (s) and rapid (r) processes, there is observational evidence for neutron-capture processes that operate at…
Neptune remains a mysterious world that deserves further exploration and is a high-priority objective for a future planetary mission in order to better understand the formation and evolution of ice giant planets. We have developed a coupled…
Giant collisions can account for Uranus's and Neptune's large obliquities, yet generating two planets with widely different tilts and strikingly similar spin rates is a low-probability event. Trapping into a secular spin-orbit resonance, a…
Pulsars inside binary systems can accrete matter that arrives up to the pulsar surface provided that its period is long enough. During the accretion process, matter has to be accelerated to the rotational velocity of the pulsar…
The space environment in which planets are embedded depends mainly on the host star and impacts the evolution of the planetary atmosphere. The quiet M dwarf GJ 436 hosts a close-in hot Neptune which is known to feature a comet-like tail of…
(abridged) A complete census of planetary systems around a volume-limited sample of solar-type stars (FGK dwarfs) in the Solar neighborhood with uniform sensitivity down to Earth-mass planets within their Habitable Zones out to several AUs…
The irregular satellites of outer planets are thought to have been captured from heliocentric orbits. The exact nature of the capture process, however, remains uncertain. We examine the possibility that irregular satellites were captured…
The migration of Neptune's resonances through the proto-Kuiper belt has been imprinted in the distribution of small bodies in the outer Solar System. Here we analyze five published Neptune migration models in detail, focusing on the high…
We present a uniform analysis of the atmospheric escape rate of Neptune-like planets with estimated radius and mass (restricted to $M_{\rm p}<30\,M_{\oplus}$). For each planet we compute the restricted Jeans escape parameter, $\Lambda$, for…
Observed high multiplicity planetary systems are often tightly packed. Numerical studies indicate that such systems are susceptible to dynamical instabilities. Dynamical instabilities in close-in tightly packed systems, similar to those…
Current research focuses on designing fast trajectories to the trans-Neptunian object (TNO) (90377) Sedna to study the surface and composition from a close range. Studying Sedna from a close distance can provide unique data about the Solar…
Because of their neutron-richness and association with supernovae, post-explosion protoneutron star winds are thought to be a likely astrophysical site for rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis (the r-process). However, the most recent…
A few studies have reported a significant dearth of exoplanets with Neptune mass and radius with orbital periods below $2$--$4$ d. This cannot be explained by observational biases because many Neptunian planets with longer orbital periods…