Related papers: Atmosphere Loss by Aerial Bursts
Planetary mass loss is governed by several physical mechanisms, including photoionisation that may impact the evolution of the atmosphere. Stellar radiation energy deposited as heat depends strongly on the energy of the primary electrons…
The extent to which a magnetosphere protects its planetary atmosphere from stellar wind ablation depends upon how well it prevents energy and momentum exchange with the atmosphere and how well it traps otherwise escaping plasma. We focus on…
Gravity assist manoeuvres are one of the most succesful techniques in astrodynamics. In these trajectories the spacecraft comes very close to the surface of the Earth, or other Solar system planets or moons, and, as a consequence, it…
We argue that the energy injection of pulsations may be of greater importance to the mass-loss rate of AGB stars than metallicity, and that the mass-loss trend with metallicity is not as simple as sometimes assumed. Using our detailed…
We present a uniform analysis of the atmospheric escape rate of Neptune-like planets with estimated radius and mass (restricted to $M_{\rm p}<30\,M_{\oplus}$). For each planet we compute the restricted Jeans escape parameter, $\Lambda$, for…
The Breakthrough Initiatives Project Starshot proposes to send a gram-scale laser driven spacecraft to the Alpha Centauri system in a 20 year mission travelling at v=0.2c. One of the challenges of this mission as the spacecraft moves…
Giant impacts dominate the late stages of accretion of rocky planets. They contribute to the heating, melting, and sometimes vaporizing of the bodies involved in the impacts. Due to fractionation during melting and vaporization,…
The sub-Saturn ($\sim$4--8$R_{\oplus}$) occurrence rate rises with orbital period out to at least $\sim$300 days. In this work we adopt and test the hypothesis that the decrease in their occurrence towards the star is a result of…
The collision outcomes of dust aggregates in protoplanetary disks dictate how planetesimals form. Experimental and numerical studies have suggested that bouncing collisions occurring at low impact velocities may limit aggregate growth in…
We have performed a statistical analysis using broad band IRAS data on about 500 planetary nebulae with the aim of characterizing their dust content. Our approach is different from previous studies in that it uses an extensive grid of…
In the core accretion model, gas-giant planets first form a solid core, which then accretes gas from a protoplanetary disk when the core exceeds a critical mass. Here, we model the atmosphere of a core that grows by accreting ice-rich…
The detailed evolution of exoplanetary atmospheres has been the subject of decade-long studies. Only recently, investigations began on the possible atmospheric mass loss caused by the activity of galactic central engines. This question has…
Planets with 2 $R_{\oplus}$ < $R$ < 3 $R_{\oplus}$ and orbital period $<$100 d are abundant; these sub-Neptune exoplanets are not well understood. For example, $Kepler$ sub-Neptunes are likely to have deep magma oceans in contact with their…
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…
Stellar activity and planetary atmospheric properties have the potential to strongly influence habitability. To date, neither have been adequately studied in the multiverse context, so there has been no assessment of how these effects…
Aerodynamic theory predicts that dust grains in protoplanetary disks will drift radially inward on comparatively short timescales. In this context, it has long been known that the presence of a gap opened by a planet can alter the dust…
Early-type galaxies possess a dilute hot (2-10E6 K) gas that is probably the thermalized ejecta of the mass loss from evolving stars. We investigate the processes by which the mass loss from orbiting stars interacts with the stationary hot…
Aerocapture uses atmospheric drag to decelerate spacecraft and achieve orbit insertion. One of the significant risks associated with aerocapture is the uncertainty in the atmospheric density, particularly for outer planets. The paper…
Various ``cosmic shorelines" have been proposed to delineate which planets have atmospheres. The fates of individual planet atmospheres may be set by a complex sea of growth and loss processes, driven by unmeasurable environmental factors…
The rate at which massive stars eject mass in stellar winds significantly influences their evolutionary path. Cosmic rates of nucleosynthesis, explosive stellar phenomena, and compact object genesis depend on this poorly known facet of…