Related papers: Origin of Phobos and Deimos : Orbital evolution sh…
We evaluate the orbital evolution and several plausible origins scenarios for the mutually inclined orbits of Upsilon Andromedae c and d. These two planets have orbital elements that oscillate with large amplitudes and lie close to the…
Stars grazing supermassive black holes on bound orbits may produce periodic flares over many passages, known as repeating partial tidal disruption events (TDEs). Here, we present 3D hydrodynamic simulations of sun-like stars over multiple…
The solar system's terrestrial planets are thought to have accreted over millions of years out of a sea of smaller embryos and planetesimals. Because it is impossible to know the surface density profile for solids and size frequency…
High-precision ephemerides are not only useful in supporting space missions, but also in investigating the physical nature of celestial bodies. This paper reports an update to the orbit and rotation model of the Martian moon Phobos. In…
Jupiter and Saturn play host to an impressive array of satellites, making it reasonable to suspect that similar systems of moons might exist around giant extrasolar planets. Furthermore, a significant population of such planets is known to…
The relatively warm temperatures required on early Earth and Mars have been difficult to account for via warming from greenhouse gases. We tested whether this problem can be resolved for both Earth and Mars by a young Sun that is brighter…
The abundance of highly siderophile elements (HSEs) inferred for Mars' mantle from martian meteorites implies a Late Veneer (LV) mass addition of ~0.8 wt% with broadly chondritic composition. Late accretion to Mars by a differentiated…
Many dynamical aspects of the solar system can be explained by the outer planets experiencing a period of orbital instability sometimes called the Nice Model. Though often correlated with a perceived delayed spike in the lunar cratering…
Post-Noachian Martian paleochannels indicate the existence of liquid water on the surface of Mars after about 3.5 Gya (Irwin et al., 2015; Palucis et al., 2016). In order to explore the effects of variations in CO$_{2}$ partial pressure and…
We examine the dynamics and stability of circumbinary particles orbiting around the Earth-Moon binary system. The moon formed close to the Earth (semi-major axis $a_{EM}\approx 3\, R_\oplus$) and expanded through tides to its current day…
The satellites of extrasolar planets (exomoons) have been recently proposed as astrobiological targets. Since giant planets in the habitable zone are thought to have migrated there, it is possible that they may have captured a former…
Motivated by the New Horizons mission, we consider how Pluto's small satellites -- currently Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra -- grow in debris from the giant impact that forms the Pluto-Charon binary. After the impact, Pluto and Charon…
Three principal concepts regarding lunar formation have been examined: the accretion hypothesis, the mega-impact theory, and the multi-impact model. The multi-impact model amalgamates the salient facets of the mega-impact theory and the…
The disruption of an icy moon in a collision with an interloping comet a few hundred million years ago is a simple way to create Saturn's rings. A ring parent moon with a mass comparable to Mimas could be trapped in mean motion resonance…
Remote sensing data from orbiter missions have proposed that ground ice may currently exist on Mars, although the volume is still uncertain. Recent analyses of Martian meteorites have suggested that the water reservoirs have at least three…
On 2022 September 26th, 23:14 UT the NASA/DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft successfully impacted Dimorphos, the secondary component of the binary (65803) Didymos system, demonstrating asteroid orbit deflection for the…
Windblown sand creates multiscale bedforms on Earth, Mars, and other planetary bodies. According to conventional wisdom, decameter-scale dunes and decimeter-scale ripples emerge via distinct mechanisms on Earth: a hydrodynamic instability…
It has been suggested that the ejection to interplanetary space of terrestrial crustal material, accelerated in a large impact, may result in the interchange of biological material between Earth and other Solar System bodies. In this paper,…
In recent years, unprecedented progress in observational cosmology has revealed a great deal of information about the formation and evolution of structures in the universe. This, in turn, has raised many challenging issues for the…
Mars is the Solar System's canonical small, rocky planet that transitioned from early geologic activity and surface liquid water to a cold and arid planet with a thin, cold, CO$_2$-dominated atmosphere. The evolution of Mars, in the context…