Related papers: Modification of the composition and density of Mer…
Recent observations suggest late accretion, which is generally nonaxisymmetric, onto protoplanetary disks. We investigated nonaxisymmetric late accretion considering the effects of magnetic fields. Our model assumes a cloudlet encounter…
Continuing our initiative on advancing the calculations of planetesimal accretion in the core-accretion model, we present here the results of our recent study of the contributions of planetesimals around and beyond the orbit of Saturn. In…
The discovery of the first two interstellar objects implies that, on average, every star contributes a substantial amount of material to the galactic population by ejecting such bodies from the host system. Since scattering is a chaotic…
The final stage of terrestrial planet formation consists of the cleanup of residual planetesimals after the giant impact phase. Dynamically, a residual planetesimal population is needed to damp the high eccentricities of the terrestrial…
Observations and models of giant planets indicate that such objects are enriched in heavy elements compared to solar abundances. The prevailing view is that giant planets accreted multiple Earth masses of heavy elements after the end of…
Spacecraft measurements of Mercury indicate it has a core dynamo with a surface field of 200-800 nT. These data also indicate that the crust contains remanent magnetization likely produced by an ancient magnetic field. The inferred…
Impacts between planetesimals have largely been ruled out as a heat source in the early Solar System, by calculations that show them to be an inefficient heat source and unlikely to cause global heating. However, the long-term, localized…
The rotation of Mercury is presently captured in a 3/2 spin-orbit resonance with the orbital mean motion. The capture mechanism is well understood as the result of tidal interactions with the Sun combined with planetary perturbations.…
In the Nice model of solar system formation, Uranus and Neptune undergo an orbital upheaval, sweeping through a planetesimal disk. The region of the disk from which material is accreted by the ice giants during this phase of their evolution…
The impact heat accumulated during the late stage of planetary accretion can melt a significant part or even the entire mantle of a terrestrial body, giving rise to a global magma ocean. [...] Assuming fractional crystallization of the…
The pathway to forming the iron-rich planet Mercury remains mysterious. Mercury's core makes up 70% of the planetary mass, which implies a significant enrichment of iron relative to silicates, while its mantle is strongly depleted in…
Pebble accretion is a new mechanism to quickly grow the cores of planets. In pebble accretion, gravity and gas drag conspire to yield large collisional cross sections for small particles in protoplanetary disks. However, before pebble…
Mercury's magnetosphere is known to be affected by enhanced ram pressures and magnetic fields inside interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). Here we report detailed observations of an ICME compressing Mercury's dayside magnetosphere…
As the number of planetary mass objects (PMOs, $\lessapprox$13 M$_{\rm{Jupiter}}$) at wider separation ($\gtrapprox$10 AU) grows, there is emerging evidence that they form differently from their higher-mass brown-dwarf (BD) counterparts.…
Radar and spacecraft observations show the permanently shadowed regions around Mercury's North Pole to contain water ice and complex organic material. One possible source of this material are impacts by interplanetary dust particles (IDPs),…
Cometary impacts play an important role in the early evolution of Earth, and other terrestrial exoplanets. Here, we present a numerical model for the interaction of weak, low-density cometary impactors with planetary atmospheres, which…
We describe the current state of knowledge about Mercury's interior structure. We review the available observational constraints, including mass, size, density, gravity field, spin state, composition, and tidal response. These data enable…
The present obliquity of Mercury is very low (less than 0.1 degree), which led previous studies to always adopt a nearly zero obliquity during the planet's past evolution. However, the initial orientation of Mercury's rotation axis is…
Metallic bodies that were the cores of differentiated bodies are sources of iron meteorites and are considered to have formed early in the terrestrial planet region before migrating to the main asteroid belt. Surface temperatures and mutual…
Atmospheric heavy elements have been observed in more than a quarter of white dwarfs (WDs) at different cooling ages, indicating ongoing accretion of asteroidal material, whilst only a few per cent of the WDs possess a dust disk, and all…