Related papers: Formation of Comets
Recent spacecraft observations exploring solar system properties impact standard paradigms of the formation of stars, planets and comets. We stress the unexpected cloud of microscopic dust resulting from the DEEP IMPACT mission, and the…
A detailed study of comets active at large heliocentric distances (greater than 4 au) which enter the Solar System for the first time and are composed of matter in its elementary, unprocessed state, would help in our understanding of the…
The initial conditions, physics, and outcome of planet formation are now constrained by detailed observations of protoplanetary disks, laboratory experiments, and the discovery of thousands of extrasolar planetary systems. These…
Since the discovery of the first extra-solar planets, we are confronted with the puzzling diversity of planetary systems. Processes like planet radial migration in gas-disks and planetary orbital instabilities, often invoked to explain the…
This pedagogical chapter covers the theory of planet formation, with an emphasis on the physical processes relevant to current research. After summarizing empirical constraints from astronomical and geophysical data, we describe the…
Several properties of the Solar System, including the wide radial spacing of the giant planets, can be explained if planets radially migrated by exchanging orbital energy and momentum with outer disk planetesimals. Neptune's…
Comets are important "eyewitnesses" of Solar System formation and evolution. Important tests to determine the chemical composition and to study the physical processes in cometary nuclei and coma need data in the UV range of the…
Context. Breathtaking imagery recorded during the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission confirmed the bilobate nature of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's nucleus. Its peculiar appearance is not unique among comets. The majority of…
Comet disintegration proceeds both through sublimation and discrete splitting events. The cross-sectional area of material ejected by a comet may, within days, become many times greater than that of the Earth, making encounters with such…
We discuss the results of laboratory measurements and theoretical models concerning the aggregation of dust in protoplanetary disks, as the initial step toward planet formation. Small particles easily stick when they collide and form…
In the recent years, the "Nice" model of solar system formation has attained an unprecedented level of success in reproducing much of the observed orbital architecture of the solar system by evolving the planets to their current locations…
In view of the many recent observations conducted by ALMA and SPHERE, it is becoming clear that protoplanetary disks form planets in narrow annular gaps at various distances from the central protostars before these protostars are actually…
The Primordial Disk of small icy planetesimals, once located at 15-30 AU from the Sun, was disrupted by giant planet migration in the early Solar System. The Primordial Disk thereby became the source region of objects in the current-day…
The asteroid belt was dynamically shaped during and after planet formation. Despite representing a broad ring of stable orbits, the belt contains less than one one-thousandth of an Earth mass. The asteroid orbits are dynamically excited…
Past and future dynamical evolution of all 64 long period comets having 1/aori< 1\times10-4 au-1 and qosc > 3.0 au and discovered after 1970 is studied. For all of them we obtained a new, homogeneous set of osculating orbits, including 15…
Many debris discs reveal a two-component structure, with an outer Kuiper-belt analogue and a warm inner component whose origin is still a matter of debate. One possibility is that warm emission stems from an "asteroid belt" closer in to the…
Kuiper-like belts of planetesimals orbiting stars other than the Sun are most commonly detected from the thermal emission of small dust produced in collisions. Emission from gas, most notably CO, highlights the cometary nature of these…
We use a fully 3-dimensional thermal evolution model to examine the effects of a non-uniform surface albedo on the subsurface thermal structure of comets. Surface albedo markings cast "thermal shadows", with strong lateral thermal…
New data on the distribution of distant trans-Neptunian objects and on the properties of comets indicate the importance of dynamical processes in the outer part of the protoplanetary disk in the formation of the observed structure of the…
Meteorites are a remarkable resource. They capture the imagination of people worldwide with their spectacular entry through Earth's atmosphere as fireballs, and their exotic character of being pieces of other worlds. Scientifically, they…