Related papers: Tether Capture of spacecraft at Neptune
Nbody simulations are used to examine the consequences of Neptune's outward migration into the Kuiper Belt, with the simulated endstates being compared rigorously and quantitatively to the observations. These simulations confirm the…
Performing orbital insertion around Mars using aerocapture instead of a propulsive orbit insertion manoeuvre allows to save resources and/or increase the payload mass fraction. Aerocapture has never been employed to date because of the high…
Studying the physical processes occurring in the region just above the magnetic poles of strongly magnetized, accreting binary neutron stars is essential to our understanding of stellar and binary system evolution. Perhaps more importantly,…
We propose to measure the rate \Rd\ for muon capture on the deuteron to better than 1.5% precision. This process is the simplest weak interaction process on a nucleus that can both be calculated and measured to a high degree of precision.…
Thermal protection systems are a critical component of planetary exploration, enabling probes to enter the atmosphere and perform in-situ measurements. The aero-thermal conditions encountered during entry are destination and vehicle…
Neptune's present axial tilt of approximately 28 deg. with respect to its orbital plane can be explained by collisions that its primordial core may have experienced with surrounding planetary embryos during the final stages of its…
We present calculations of magnetic potential associated with the perturbation of Saturn's magnetic field by a rotating, equatorially-situated disc of plasma. Such structures are central to the dynamics of the rapidly rotating…
The core accretion theory of planet formation has at least two fundamental problems explaining the origins of Uranus and Neptune: (1) dynamical times in the trans-Saturnian solar nebula are so long that core growth can take > 15 Myr, and…
Kepler's short-period exoplanet population has revealed evolutionary features such as the Radius Valley and the Hot Neptune desert that are likely sculpted by atmospheric loss over time. These findings suggest that the primordial planet…
As the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) fulfills its primary mission it is executing an unprecedented all-sky survey with the potential to discover distant planets in our own solar system, as well as hundreds of…
Planetary magnetic fields can affect the predicted mass loss rate for close-in planets that experience large amounts of UV irradiation. In this work, we present a method to detect the magnetic fields of close-in exoplanets undergoing…
The problem of autonomous launch and landing of a tethered rigid aircraft for airborne wind energy generation is addressed. The system operates with ground-based power conversion and pumping cycles, where the tether is repeatedly reeled in…
We study the Kozai dynamics affecting the orbital evolution of transneptunian objects being captured or not in MMR with Neptune. We provide energy level maps of the type ({\omega},q) describing the possible orbital paths from Neptune up to…
Stellar heating causes atmospheres of close-in exoplanets to expand and escape. These extended atmospheres are difficult to observe because their main spectral signature - neutral hydrogen at ultraviolet wavelengths - is strongly absorbed…
We study the capture of galactic dark matter particles in the Solar System produced by rotation of Jupiter. It is shown that the capture cross section is much larger than the area of Jupiter orbit being inversely diverging at small particle…
Context: The sub-Jovian or Neptunian desert is a previously-identified region of parameter space where there is a relative dearth of intermediate-mass planets at short orbital periods. Aims: We present the discovery of a new transiting…
We develop the idea proposed by Barge & Sommeria (1995) and Tanga et al. (1996) that large-scale vortices present in the solar nebula can concentrate dust particles and facilitate the formation of planetesimals and planets. We introduce an…
Because a chaotic zone can reduce the long timescale capture probabilities and cause catastrophic events such as close encounters with a planet or star during temporary capture, the dynamics of migrating planets is likely to be strongly…
Despite many similarities, there are significant observed differences between Uranus and Neptune: while Uranus is tilted and has a regular set of satellites, suggesting their accretion from a disk, Neptune's moons are irregular and are…
We present precision transit observations of the Neptune-sized planets K2-28b and K2-100b, using the Engineered Diffuser on the ARCTIC imager on the ARC 3.5m Telescope at Apache Point Observatory. K2-28b is a $R_{p} = 2.56 R_\oplus$…