Related papers: Exploring formation scenarios for the exomoon cand…
The four major satellites of Jupiter, known as the Galilean moons, and Saturn's most massive satellite, Titan, are believed to have formed in a predominantly gaseous circum-planetary disk, during the last stages of formation of their parent…
For much of human history we have wondered how our solar system formed, and whether there are any other planets like ours around other stars. Only in the last 20 years have we had direct evidence for the existence of exoplanets, with the…
The formation of satellite systems in circum-planetary discs is considered to be similar to the formation of rocky planets in a proto-planetary disc, especially Super-Earths. Thus, it is possible to use systems with large satellites to test…
In the spring of 2009, the Kepler Mission commenced high-precision photometry on nearly 156,000 stars to determine the frequency and characteristics of small exoplanets, conduct a guest observer program, and obtain asteroseismic data on a…
Exomoons may play an important role in determining the habitability of worlds outside of our solar system. They can stabilize conditions, alter the climate by breaking tidal locking with the parent star, drive tidal heating, and perhaps…
Recent observations by the {\it Kepler} space telescope have led to the discovery of more than 4000 exoplanet candidates consisting of many systems with Earth- to Neptune-sized objects that reside well inside the orbit of Mercury, around…
Satellites around large asteroids are preferentially found among those with the most rapid rotation and elongated shape. The taxonomic statistics are similarly skewed; in total, 13 asteroids larger than 100 km are known to have satellites,…
The origin of the regular satellites ties directly to planetary formation in that the satellites form in gas and dust disks around the giant planets and may be viewed as mini-solar systems, involving a number of closely related underlying…
Exomoons are expected to orbit gas giant exoplanets just as moons orbit solar system planets. Tidal heating is present in solar system satellites and it can heat up their interior depending on their orbital and interior properties. We aim…
The recent discovery of a number of circumbinary planets lends a new tool to astrophysicists seeking to understand how and where planet formation takes place. Of the increasingly numerous circumbinary systems, Kepler-16 is arguably the most…
Highly eccentric orbits are one of the major surprises of exoplanets relative to the Solar System and indicate rich and tumultuous dynamical histories. One system of particular interest is Kepler-1656, which hosts a sub-Jovian planet with…
Since the discovery of the first giant planet outside the solar system in 1995 (Mayor & Queloz 1995), more than 180 extrasolar planets have been discovered. With improving detection capabilities, a new class of planets with masses 5-20…
Each of the giant planets within the Solar System has large moons but none of these moons have their own moons (which we call ${\it submoons}$). By analogy with studies of moons around short-period exoplanets, we investigate the…
The history of the outer solar system is intrinsically related to the Giant Planets migration. A massive disk of material within a radius of 30~au was scattered during the planetary migration, creating different dynamic populations in the…
Single massive satellites are of great observational interest, as they can produce prominent and potentially detectable signatures. For terrestrial planets and super-Earths, giant impacts in the late stages of formation may generate dense…
A better knowledge of Jovian satellites' origins will bring light on the environment that surrounded Jupiter during its formation and can help us to understand the characteristics of this unique satellite system. We developed a…
The formation of Pluto's small satellites - Styx, Nix, Keberos and Hydra - remains a mystery. Their orbits are nearly circular and are near mean-motion resonances and nearly coplanar with Charon's orbit. One scenario suggests that they all…
The origin of the irregular satellites of the giant planets has been long debated since their discovery. Their dynamical features argue against an in-situ formation suggesting they are captured bodies, yet there is no global consensus on…
The dynamical features of the irregular satellites of the giant planets argue against an in-situ formation and are strongly suggestive of a capture origin. Since the last detailed investigations of their dynamics, the total number of…
We present an overview of the formation of Jupiter and its associated circumplanetary disk. Jupiter forms via a combination of planetesimal accretion and gravitational accumulation of gas from the surrounding solar nebula. The formation of…