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The recent discovery of dense rings around the Centaur Chariklo (and possibly Chiron) reveals that complete dense planetary rings are not only found around Saturn and Uranus, but also around small bodies orbiting in the vicinity of those…
We significantly constrain the sky position, distance, and mass of a possible additional, distant planet in the solar system by examining its influence on the distance between Earth and the Cassini Spacecraft. Our preferred region is…
Various recent observational developments are here used to make a more critical analysis of the parameter space of the decaying neutrino theory for the ionisation of the interstellar medium. These developments involve phenomena inside our…
We extend previous results showing that the surfaces of Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt objects are not primordial and have been moderately to heavily reworked by collisions. Objects smaller than about $r = 2.5$ km have collisional disruption…
By telescopic tracking, we have established that the orbit of the trans-neptunian object (2000 CR$_{105}$) has a perihelion of $\simeq$44 AU, and is thus outside the domain controlled by strong gravitational close encounters with Neptune.…
We investigate the ionising effect of low energy cosmic rays (CRs) from a young star on its protoplanetary disk (PPD). We consider specifically the effect of $\sim3\,$GeV protons injected at the inner edge of the PPD. An increase in the…
White dwarfs with emission lines from gaseous debris discs are among the rarest examples of planetary remnant hosts, but at the same time they are key objects for studying the final evolutionary stage of planetary systems. Making use of the…
We present photometric ISO 60 and 170um measurements, complemented by some IRAS data at 60um, of a sample of 84 nearby main-sequence stars of spectral class A, F, G and K in order to determine the incidence of dust disks around such…
Meteorites, which are remnants of solar system formation, provide a direct glimpse into the dynamics and evolution of a young stellar object (YSO), namely our Sun. Much of our knowledge about the astrophysical context of the birth of the…
In preparation for the Jan 1/2019 encounter between the New Horizons spacecraft and the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, we provide estimates of the expected impact crater surface density on the Kuiper Belt object. Using the observed crater…
The atmosphere of a transiting planet shields the stellar radiation providing us with a powerful method to estimate its size and density. In particular, because of their high ionization energy, atoms with high atomic number (Z) absorb…
Late-stage Ca-sulfate-filled fractures are common on Mars. Notably, the Shenandoah formation in the western edge of Jezero crater preserves a variety of Ca-sulfate minerals in the fine-grained siliciclastic rocks explored by the…
We present a study on the relationship between the ratio of the depth of a crater to its diameter and the diameter for lunar craters both on the maria and on the highlands. We consider craters younger than 1.1 billion years in age, i.e. of…
We investigate the patterns observed in ejecta curtain induced by hypervelocity impact (2-6 km/s) with a variety of the size and shape of target particles. We characterize the patterns by an angle, defined as the ratio of the characteristic…
Galactic cosmic rays and solar protons ionize the present terrestrial atmosphere, and the air showers are simulated by well-tested Monte-Carlo simulations, such as PHITS code. We use the latest version of PHITS to evaluate the possible…
We propose that several short duration events observed in past stellar occultations by Chiron were produced by rings material. From a reanalysis of the stellar occultation data in the literature we determined two possible orientations of…
The core accretion theory of planet formation has at least two fundamental problems explaining the origins of Uranus and Neptune: (1) dynamical times in the trans-Saturnian solar nebula are so long that core growth can take > 15 Myr, and…
Centaurs are minor planets orbiting between Jupiter and Neptune that have or had crossing orbits with one or more giant planets. Recent observations and reinterpretation of previous observations have revealed the existence of ring systems…
Theoretical models of protoplanetary disc dispersal predict a phase where photoevaporation has truncated the disc at several AU, creating a pressure trap which is dust-rich. Previous models predicted this phase could be long-lived (~Myr),…
We show that the rapid and large decrease in the intensity of high-ionization emission lines from the Eta Carinae massive binary system can be explained by the accretion model. These emission lines are emitted by material in the nebula…