Related papers: Packing Moons Inside the Earth
Understanding the concept of habitability is related to an evolutionary knowledge of the particular planet-in-question. Additional indications so-called "systemic aspects" of the planetary system as a whole governs a particular planet's…
The MONS satellite will have two Star Trackers to sense the spacecraft attitude, and we plan to use them as scientific instruments to perform high-precision photometry of thousands of stars. We briefly describe the current plans for the…
All four giant planets and several minor bodies in the Solar System host rings. However, rings around moons have yet to be observed. A host planet can produce magnetic fields that affect its moons, adding a wealth of dynamical phenomena…
We consider three-dimensional clusters of identical bubbles packed around a central bubble and calculate their energy and optimal shape. We obtain the surface area and bubble pressures to improve on existing growth laws for…
We obtain an upper bound to the packing density of regular tetrahedra. The bound is obtained by showing the existence, in any packing of regular tetrahedra, of a set of disjoint spheres centered on tetrahedron edges, so that each sphere is…
Determining whether Earth-like planets are common or rare looms as a touchstone in the question of life in the universe. We searched for Earth-size planets that cross in front of their host stars by examining the brightness measurements of…
The applicability of the linear theory of elasticity to the Moon has been studied. As a criterion was taken the smallness of the strain tensor. The elastic moduli are obtained from the data of the project "Apollo". The pressure was…
The hypothesis of lunar origin by a single giant impact can explain some aspects of the Earth-Moon system. However, it is difficult to reconcile giant impact models with the compositional similarity of the Earth and Moon without violating…
Neutron stars are compact and dense celestial objects that offer the unique opportunity to explore matter and its interactions under conditions that cannot be reproduced elsewhere in the Universe. Their extreme gravitational, rotational and…
Future Moon bases will likely be constructed using resources mined from the surface of the Moon. The difficulty of maintaining a human workforce on the Moon and communications lag with Earth means that mining will need to be conducted using…
This document presents the study conducted during the European Moon Rover System Pre-Phase A project, in which we have developed a lunar rover system, with a modular approach, capable of carrying out different missions with different…
Numerous missions planned for the next decade are likely to target a handful of smal sites of interest on the Moon's surface, creating risks of crowding and interference at these locations. The Moon presents finite and scarce areas with…
The diversity and quantity of moons in the Solar System suggest a manifold population of natural satellites exist around extrasolar planets. Of peculiar interest from an astrobiological perspective, the number of sizable moons in the…
We argue that the evidence for neutrino mass is quite compelling. This mass raises a number of questions, which we enumerate, about neutrinos. Then we focus on one of these questions---the issue of the possible neutrino mass spectra. In…
Gaps in space weather observations that can be addressed with small satellites are identified. Potential improvements in solar inputs to space weather models, space radiation control, estimations of energy budget of the upper Earth's…
The symmetry between quarks and leptons suggests that neutrinos should have mass. As embodied in the grand unified theory SO(10) this yields masses that can only be detected by neutrino oscillations. Such oscillations could be very…
Extrasolar multiple-planet systems provide valuable opportunities for testing theories of planet formation and evolution. The architectures of the known multiple-planet systems demonstrate a fascinating level of diversity, which motivates…
The five classical Uranian moons are possible ocean worlds that exhibit bizarre geologic landforms, hinting at recent surface-interior communication. However, Uranus' classical moons, as well as its ring moons and irregular satellites,…
In this article, we describe a very simple technique to locate naked-eye planets in the sky, to an accuracy of $\sim 1^{\circ}$. The procedure, comprising just three steps, involves very simple manual calculations for planetary orbits…
The next generation of space-based experiments will go hunting for answers to cosmology's key open questions which revolve around inflation, dark matter and dark energy. Low earth orbit and lunar missions within the European Space Agency's…