Related papers: Comet fragmentation as a source of the zodiacal cl…
We study the evolution of long-period comets by numerical integration of their orbits, following comets from their origin in the Oort cloud until their final escape or destruction, in a model solar system consisting of the Sun, the four…
The observed rapid onset of star formation in molecular clouds requires rapid formation of dense fragments which can collapse individually before being overtaken by global gravitationally-driven flows. Many previous investigations have…
Since the 1980's it has been becoming increasingly clear that the Solar System's irregular satellites are collisionally evolved. We derive a general model for the collisional evolution of an irregular satellite swarm and apply it to the…
In this review we focus on the role jets and outflows play in the star and planet formation process. Our essential question can be posed as follows: are jets/outflows merely an epiphenomenon associated with star formation or do they play an…
Jupiter-family comets (JFCs) have orbital periods of less than 20 years and therefore undergo more frequent sublimation compared to other comet populations. The JFCs therefore represent the ideal dynamical population for investigating the…
Within the framework of The Heterogeneous dust Evolution Model at the IaS (THEMIS) this work investigates in detail the surface processes and chemistry relating to core/mantle interstellar and cometary grain structures and its influence on…
Comets are thought to preserve almost pristine dust particles, thus providing a unique sample of the properties of the early solar nebula. The microscopic properties of this dust played a key part in particle aggregation during the…
The early stages of planet formation are still not well understood. Coagulation models have revealed numerous obstacles to the dust growth, such as the bouncing, fragmentation and radial drift barriers. We study the interplay between dust…
Excess emission, associated with warm, dust belts, commonly known as exozodis, has been observed around a third of nearby stars. The high levels of dust required to explain the observations are not generally consistent with steady-state…
Dust grains forming in the extended atmospheres of AGB stars are critical for the heavy mass loss of these cool luminous giants, as they provide radiative acceleration for the stellar winds. Characteristic mid-IR spectral features indicate…
Giant planet atmospheres are thought to reflect the gas phase composition of the disk when and where they formed. However, these atmospheres may also be polluted via solid accretion or ice sublimation in the disk. Here, we propose a novel…
The dust measured in debris disks traces the position of planetesimal belts. In our Solar System, we are also able to measure the largest planetesimals directly and can extrapolate down to make an estimate of the dust. The zodiacal dust…
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),…
We explore the long-term evolution of a bias-free orbital representation of the cometary nuclei (with diameters above 2 km) of the Kuiper belt, using the so-called L7 synthetic model from CFEPS, which consists of three dynamical…
We report on the results of the first 3D SPH simulation of massive, gravitationally unstable protoplanetary disks with radiative transfer. We adopt a flux-limited diffusion scheme justified by the high opacity of most of the disk. The…
The Interstellar Medium has a fractal structure, in the sense that gas and dust distribute in a hierarchical and self-similar manner. Stars in new-born cluster probably follow the same fractal patterns of their parent molecular clouds.…
Recent interferometric surveys of nearby main-sequence stars show a faint but significant near-infrared excess in roughly two dozen systems, i.$\,$e. around $10\,\%$ to $30\,\%$ of stars surveyed. This excess is attributed to dust located…
Dust is the usual minor component of the interstellar medium. Its dynamic role in the contraction of the diffuse gas into molecular clouds is commonly assumed to be negligible because of the small mass fraction, $f \simeq 0.01$. However, as…
Hot exozodiacal dust is thought to be responsible for excess near-infrared (NIR) emission emanating from the innermost parts of some debris disks. The origin of this dust, however, is still a matter of debate. We test whether hot…
The discovery of Jupiter-mass planets in close orbits about their parent stars has challenged models of planet formation. Recent observations have shown that a number of these planets have highly inclined, sometimes retrograde orbits about…