Related papers: The Wide-Binary Origin of The Pluto-Charon System
It is usually taken for granted that mutual synchronisation of a tidal two-body system is attained through tidal recession, assuming the reduced Hill sphere is not reached. However, synchronisation can be achieved also via tidal approach,…
Recent observations (Burnes2002,Veillet2002,Margot2002a) have revealed an unexpectedly high binary fraction among the Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) that populate the Kuiper Belt. The TNO binaries are strikingly different from asteroid…
Over the last decades, numerous wide (>1000 AU) binaries have been discovered in the Galactic field and halo. The origin of these wide binaries cannot be explained by star formation or by dynamical interactions in the Galactic field. We…
We describe a fast, approximate method to characterize the orbits of satellites around a central binary in numerical simulations. A goal is to distinguish the free eccentricity -- random motion of a satellite relative to a dynamically cool…
A large population of fragile, wide (> 1000 AU) binary systems exists in the Galactic field and halo. These wide binary stars cannot be primordial because of the high stellar density in star forming regions, while formation by capture in…
The recent discovery of binary objects in the Kuiper-belt opens an invaluable window into past and present conditions in the trans-Neptunian part of the Solar System. For example, knowledge of how these objects formed can be used to impose…
The cold classical Kuiper belt objects have low inclinations and eccentricities and are the only Kuiper belt population suspected to have formed in situ. Compared with the dynamically excited populations, which exhibit a broad range of…
Planets and satellites orbiting a binary system exist in the solar system and extrasolar planetary systems. Their orbits can be significantly different from Keplerian orbits, if they are close to the binary and the secondary-to-primary mass…
We combine several constraints provided by the crater records on Arrokoth and the worlds of the Pluto system to compute the size-frequency distribution (SFD) of the crater production function for craters with diameter D<10km. For this…
The dwarf planet Pluto is known to host an extended system of five co-planar satellites. Previous studies have explored the formation and evolution of the system in isolation, neglecting perturbative effects by the Sun. Here we show that…
Most planetary systems -- including our own -- are born within stellar clusters, where interactions with neighboring stars can help shape the system architecture. This paper develops an orbit-averaged formalism to characterize the cluster's…
Contact binary star systems represent the long-lived penultimate phase of binary evolution. Population statistics of their physical parameters inform understanding of binary evolutionary pathways and end products. We use light curves and…
The Edgeworth-Kuiper belt encodes the dynamical history of the outer solar system. Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) bear witness to coagulation physics, the evolution of planetary orbits, and external perturbations from the solar neighborhood. We…
Transiting circumbinary planets discovered by Kepler provide unique insight into binary star and planet formation. Several features of this new found population, for example the apparent pile-up of planets near the innermost stable orbit,…
Bilobate contact binaries comprise a significant fraction of the relict Kuiper Belt, which includes the exemplary contact binary (486958) Arrokoth. The surfaces of its lobes contain similar amounts of highly volatile chemical species and…
The formation of very wide binaries, such as the alpha Cen system with Proxima (also known as alpha Centauri C) separated from alpha Centauri (which itself is a close binary A/B) by 15000 AU, challenges current theories of star formation,…
The formation of brown dwarfs (BDs) poses a key challenge to star formation theory. The observed dearth of nearby ($\leq 5$ AU) brown dwarf companions to solar-mass stars, known as the brown dwarf desert, as well as the tendency for…
We propose and analyze a new mechanism for the formation of the wide asynchronous binary population. These binary asteroids have wide semi-major axes relative to most near-Earth and Main Belt asteroid systems. Confirmed members have rapidly…
This chapter summarizes analytic theory and numerical calculations for the formation and collisional evolution of KBOs at 20--150 AU. We describe the main predictions of a baseline self-stirring model and show how dynamical perturbations…
The majority of stars in the Galactic field and halo are part of binary or multiple systems. A significant fraction of these systems have orbital separations in excess of thousands of astronomical units, and systems wider than a parsec have…