Related papers: Impact Rates in the Outer Solar System
We study the influence of outer Solar System architecture on the structural evolution of the Oort Cloud (OC) and the flux of Earth-crossing comets. In particular, we seek to quantify the role of the giant planets as "planetary protectors".…
Cold debris disks (T$<$200 K) are analogues to the dust in the Solar System's Kuiper belt--dust generated from the evaporation and collision of minor bodies perturbed by planets, our Sun, and the local interstellar medium. Scattered light…
Recent studies have shown that large exomoons can form in the accretion disks around super-Jovian extrasolar planets. These planets are abundant at about 1 AU from Sun-like stars, which makes their putative moons interesting for studies of…
We numerically study the dynamical evolution of observed samples of active and inactive Centaurs and clones that reach the Jupiter-Saturn region. Our aim is to compare the evolution between active and inactive Centaurs, their end states and…
We report the results of dynamical simulations, covering Gyr timescales, of fictitious Scattered Disk Objects as a follow-up to an earlier study by Fern\'andez et al. (2004: {\it Icarus} {\bf 172}, 372). Our dynamical model is similar in…
Recent simulations show that giant planets of about one Jupiter mass migrate inward at a rate that differs from the Type II prediction. Here we show that at higher masses, planets migrate outward. Our result differs from previous ones…
The Oort Cloud Comets (OCCs), exemplified by the Great Comet of 1997 (Hale-Bopp), are occasional visitors from the heatless periphery of the solar system. Previous works hypothesized that a great majority of OCCs must physically disrupt…
The known extrasolar multiple-planet systems share a surprising dynamical attribute: they cluster just beyond the Hill stability boundary. Here we show that the planet-planet scattering model, which naturally explains the observed exoplanet…
For much of human history we have wondered how our solar system formed, and whether there are any other planets like ours around other stars. Only in the last 20 years have we had direct evidence for the existence of exoplanets, with the…
The trans-Neptunian scattered disk exhibits unexpected dynamical structure, ranging from an extended dispersion of perihelion distance to a clustered distribution in orbital angles. Self-gravitational modulation of the scattered disk has…
During the late stage of planet formation when Mars-size cores appear, interactions among planetary cores can excite their orbital eccentricities, speed their merges and thus sculpture the final architecture of planet systems. This series…
Following our identification of the probable interstellar origin of high-inclination Centaurs, Morbidelli et al. (2020) issued a rebuttal criticizing our methods and conclusions. Here, we show that the criticism is unfounded. Entropy's…
We study the dynamics of the solar basin -- the accumulated population of weakly-interacting particles on bound orbits in the Solar System. We focus on particles starting off on Sun-crossing orbits, corresponding to initial conditions of…
The unexpected finding of a ring system around the Centaur (10199) Chariklo opened a new window for dynamical studies and posed many questions about the formation and evolutionary mechanisms of Centaurs as well as the relationship to…
Most stars form in clusters where relatively close encounters with other stars are common and can leave imprints on the orbital architecture of planetary systems. In this paper, we investigate the inclination excitation of debris disk…
Abridged. We have performed an ecliptic survey of the Kuiper belt, with an areal coverage of 8.9 square degrees to a 50% limiting magnitude of r'=24.7, and have detected 88 Kuiper belt objects, roughly half of which received follow-up one…
Observations of exoplanetary systems provide clues about the intrinsic distribution of planetary systems, their architectures, and how they formed. We develop a forward modelling framework for generating populations of planetary systems and…
Due to the chaotic nature of the Solar System, the question of its long-term stability can only be answered in a statistical sense, for instance, based on numerical ensemble integrations of nearby orbits. Destabilization of the inner…
Impacts by rocky and icy bodies are thought to have played a key role in shaping the composition of solar system objects, including the Earth's habitability. Hence, it is likely that they play a similar role in exoplanetary systems. We…
The Scattered Disk Objects (SDOs) are a population of trans-Neptunian bodies with semimajor axes $50< a \lesssim 1000$ au and perihelion distances $q \gtrsim 30$ au. The detached SDOs with orbits beyond the reach of Neptune (roughly…