Related papers: Effects of a dark matter caustic passing through t…
The potential existence of a distant planet ("Planet Nine") in the Solar system has prompted a re-think about the evolution of planetary systems. As the Sun transitions from a main sequence star into a white dwarf, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus…
The dark matter content of the Universe is likely to be a mixture of matter and antimatter, perhaps comparable to the measured asymmetric mixture of baryons and antibaryons. During the early stages of the Universe, the dark matter particles…
Dynamical instabilities among giant planets are thought to be nearly ubiquitous, and culminate in the ejection of one or more planets into interstellar space. Here we perform N-body simulations of dynamical instabilities while accounting…
High precision planet orbital data extracted from direct observation, spacecraft explorations and laser ranging techniques enable to put a strong constraint on the maximal dark matter density of a spherical halo centered around the Sun. The…
Young stars are mostly found in dense stellar environments, and even our own Solar system may have formed in a star cluster. Here, we numerically explore the evolution of planetary systems similar to our own Solar system in star clusters.…
If dark matter is composed of new particles, these may become captured after scattering with nuclei in the Sun, thermalise through additional scattering, and finally annihilate into neutrinos that can be detected on Earth. If dark matter…
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…
This thesis assesses the influence of astronomical phenomena on the Earth's biosphere and climate. I examine in particular the relevance of both the path of the Sun through the Galaxy and the evolution of the Earth's orbital parameters in…
We describe the result of our numerical orbit simulation which traces dynamical evolution of new comets coming from the Oort Cloud. We combine two dynamical models for this purpose. The first one is semi-analytic, and it models an evolving…
Previous studies of cometary impacts in the outer Solar System used the spatial distribution of ecliptic comets (ECs) from dynamical models that assumed ECs began on low-inclination orbits (<5 deg) in the Kuiper belt. In reality, the source…
Recently, several papers have appeared that examine the process of capturing dark-matter particles from the Galactic halo to orbits bound to the Solar System. The authors of these papers predict large enhancements to the local dark-matter…
The habitability of planets is strongly affected by impacts from comets and asteroids. Indications from the ages of Moon rocks suggest that the inner Solar System experienced an increased rate of impacts roughly 3.8 Gya known as the Late…
In this paper we discuss two mechanisms by which high energy electrons resulting from dark matter annihilations in or near the Sun can arrive at the Earth. Specifically, electrons can escape the sun if DM annihilates into long-lived states,…
Supernova blasts envelop many surrounding stellar systems, transferring kinetic energy to small bodies in the systems. Geologic evidence from $^{60}\rm Fe$ points to recent nearby supernova activity within the past several Myr. Here, we…
Comets in the Oort cloud evolve under the influence of internal and external perturbations, such as giant planets, stellar passages, and the galactic tidal field. We aim to study the dynamical evolution of the comets in the Oort cloud,…
If dark matter particle can be decelerated due to its dissipative self scattering, except for sinking at the galaxy scale to speed up structure formation, it can also be accreted onto local celestial bodies such as the Sun, forming a…
Dark matter could be composed of macroscopic objects with large masses and geometric cross-sections spanning many decades. We investigate the potential interaction of such `stuff-sized' dark matter by considering its interactions with…
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…
We report the first results of a research program to explore the sensitivity of the orbits of Oort cloud comets to changes in the strength of the Galactic tides in the plane of the disk and also to changes in the mass of the host star. We…
The Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees, and solar plasma flows out into interplanetary space at supersonic speeds. This paper reviews our current understanding of these interrelated problems: coronal…