Related papers: Meteors: Light from Comets and Asteroids
Some asteroids eject dust, unexpectedly producing transient, comet-like comae and tails. First ascribed to the sublimation of near-surface water ice, mass losing asteroids (also called "main-belt comets") can in fact be driven by a…
Chondritic meteorites provide valuable opportunities to investigate the origins of the solar system. We explore impact jetting as a mechanism of chondrule formation and subsequent pebble accretion as a mechanism of accreting chondrules onto…
Current models of chemical evolution during star and planetary formation rely on the presence of dust grains to act as a third body. However, they generally ignore the reactivity of the dust grains themselves. Dust grains present in the…
It is speculated that some weakly active comets may be transitional objects between active and dormant comets. These objects are at a unique stage of the evolution of cometary nuclei, as they are still identifiable as active comets, in…
We have evaluated the rate at which the asteroid belt is losing material, and how it splits between macroscopic bodies and meteoritic dust. The mass loss process is due to the injection of asteroid fragments into unstable dynamical regions,…
Stardust grains recovered from meteorites provide high-precision snapshots of the isotopic composition of the stellar environment in which they formed. Attributing their origin to specific types of stars, however, often proves difficult.…
The relationship between stars and planets provides important information for understanding the interior composition, mineralogy, and overall classification of small planets (R $\lesssim$ 3.5R$_{\oplus}$). Since stars and planets are formed…
As of today, there is no official definition of a meteor cluster. It is usually identified as a large number of meteors sharing a similar radiant and velocity, all occurring within a few seconds. Only eight clusters have been reported so…
We describe properties and gravitational interactions of meteor-mass and greater compact ultra dense objects with nuclear density or greater (CUDO s). We discuss possible enclosure of CUDO s in comets, stability of these objects on impact…
This study investigates the origin of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) through the optical properties, albedo and spectral gradient, of zodiacal light. The optical properties were compared with those of potential parent bodies in the…
The discovery of binaries in each of the major populations of minor bodies in the solar system is propelling a rapid growth of heretofore unattainable physical information. The availability of mass and density constraints for minor bodies…
A meteoroid penetrating the Earth's atmosphere leaves behind a trail of dense plasma in the E-region ionosphere, a region where electrons are strongly magnetized while ions are demagnetized due to their frequent collisions with neutrals.…
Non-planetary bodies provide valuable insight into our current under- standing of planetary formation and evolution. Although these objects are challeng- ing to detect and characterize, the potential information to be drawn from them has…
The Solar System hosts the most studied and best understood major and minor planetary bodies - and the only extraterrestrial bodies to have been visited by spacecraft. The Solar System therefore provides important constraints on both the…
Asteroids are classified as tiny and light objects in the solar system, however some of them possess orbiting moons. According to surveys, 15% of near-earth asteroids have moons. The Electrical Discharge effect provides a new model that…
The mass density of dust particles that form from asteroids and comets in the interplanetary medium of the solar system is, near 1 AU, comparable to the mass density of the solar wind. It is mainly contained in particles of micrometer size…
Evidence for exocomets, icy bodies in extrasolar planetary systems, has rapidly increased over the past decade. Volatiles are detected through the gas that exocomets release as they collide and grind down within their natal belts, or as…
Observations with radar, photometric and direct imaging techniques have discovered that multiple asteroid systems can be divided clearly into a handful of different morphologies, and recently, the discovery of small unbound asteroid systems…
A recent paper by Siraj & Loeb (2021) entitled "Breakup of a long-period comet as the origin of the dinosaur extinction" attempts to revive the perennial debate about what type of body hit the Earth 66 million years ago, triggering the…
Among the near-Earth object (NEO) population there are comets and active asteroids which are sources of fragments that initially move together; in addition, some NEOs follow orbits temporarily trapped in a web of secular resonances. These…