Related papers: PI -- Multimodal Planetary Defense
Planetary systems formed in clusters may be subject to stellar encounter flybys. Here we create a diverse range of representative planetary systems with different orbital scales and planets' masses and examine encounters between them in a…
'Oumuamua, the first bona-fide interstellar planetesimal, was discovered passing through our Solar System on a hyperbolic orbit. This object was likely dynamically ejected from an extrasolar planetary system after a series of close…
We discuss a hypothetical existential threat from a 10 km diameter bolide discovered 6 months prior to impact with one case being a comet and the other being an asteroid. We show that an extension of our work on bolide fragmentation using…
Our goal is to understand primary accretion of the first planetesimals. The primitive meteorite record suggests that sizeable planetesimals formed in the asteroid belt over a period longer than a million years, each composed entirely of an…
Exploration of asteroids and comets can give insight into the origins of the solar system and can be instrumental in planetary defence and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Asteroids, due to their low gravity are a challenging target for…
Complex non-linear and dynamic processes lie at the heart of the planet formation process. Through numerical simulation and basic observational constraints, the basics of planet formation are now coming into focus. High resolution imaging…
Wind erosion is a destructive mechanism that completely dissolves a weakly bound object like a planetesimal into its constituent particles, if the velocity relative to the ambient gas and the local gas pressure are sufficiently high. In…
Short-arc orbit determination is crucial when an asteroid is first discovered. In these cases usually the observations are so few that the differential correction procedure may not converge. We have developed an initial orbit computation…
We present a solution to the long outstanding meter barrier problem in planet formation theory. As solids spiral inward due to aerodynamic drag, they will enter disk regions that are characterized by high temperatures, densities, and…
The currently feasible method of detection of Earth-mass planets is transit photometry, with detection probability decreasing with a planet's distance from the star. The existence or otherwise of short-period terrestrial planets will tell…
Knowledge of the interior density distribution of an asteroid can reveal its composition and constrain its evolutionary history. However, most asteroid observational techniques are not sensitive to interior properties. We investigate the…
Summary: In the past decade both scientists and laymen have probably heard at least once through the newspapers, TV and Internet that a new asteroid has been discovered with non-zero (sometimes "high") probability of collision with the…
We present a new method for engineering the artificial capture of asteroids. Based on theories of the chaos-assisted capture of natural satellites of the giant planets, we show how an unbound asteroid that passes close to a regular region…
We present an analytic model for the interaction between planetary atmospheres and stellar winds from main sequence M stars, with the purpose of obtaining a quick test-model that estimates the timescale for total atmospheric mass loss due…
We present a novel concept to impart a continuous thrust to an Earth threatening asteroid from a hovering spacecraft without need for physical attachment nor gravitational interaction with the asteroid. The concept involves an ion thruster…
Robust impact monitoring of near-Earth objects is an essential task of planetary defense. Current systems such as NASA's Sentry-II, the University of Pisa's CLOMON2, and ESA's Aegis have been highly successful, but independent approaches…
We describe an algorithm for long-term planetary orbit integrations, including the dominant post-Newtonian effects, that employs individual timesteps for each planet. The algorithm is symplectic and exhibits short-term errors that are…
The catalog of km-sized near-Earth objects (NEOs) is nearly complete. Typical impact monitoring analyses search for possible impacts over the next 100 years and none of the km-sized objects represent an impact threat over that time…
Recent results showed that the magnetic field of M-dwarf (dM) stars, currently the main targets in searches for terrestrial planets, is very different from the solar one, both in topology as well as in intensity. In particular, the…
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…