Related papers: A youthful Titan implied by improved impact simula…

We investigated 634 crater clusters on Mars detected between 2007 and 2021, which represent more than half of all impacts discovered in this period. Crater clusters form when meteoroids in the 10 kg to 10 ton mass range break-up in Mars'…

A plausible explanation for the absence of primordial argon, krypton, and xenon in Titan's current atmosphere is that these gases were sequestered in clathrate hydrates during Titan's "open-ocean" phase. We examine how clathrate hydrate…

Giant impacts by comets and asteroids have probably had an important influence on terrestrial biological evolution. We know of around 180 high velocity impact craters on the Earth with ages up to 2400Myr and diameters up to 300km. Some…

Metallic bodies that were the cores of differentiated bodies are sources of iron meteorites and are considered to have formed early in the terrestrial planet region before migrating to the main asteroid belt. Surface temperatures and mutual…

We examine the spectra and infrared colors of the cool methane-dominated atmospheres at Teff < 1400 K expected for young gas giant planets. We couple these spectral calculations to an updated version of the Marley et al. (2007) giant planet…

Although a large number of astronomical craters are actually produced by the oblique impacts onto inclined surfaces, most of the laboratory experiments mimicking the impact cratering have been performed by the vertical impact onto a…

We have developed a statistical framework that uses collisional evolution models, shock physics modeling and scaling laws to determine the range of plausible collisional histories for individual meteorite parent bodies. It is likely that…

Titan's abundant lakes and seas exchange methane vapor and energy with the atmosphere via a process generally known as air-sea interaction. This turbulent exchange process is investigated with an atmospheric mesoscale model coupled to a…

The Cassini mission provided key measurements needed to determine the absolute age of Saturn's rings, including the extrinsic micrometeoroid flux at Saturn, the volume fraction of non-icy pollutants in the rings, and the total ring mass.…

Titan's thick atmosphere is primarily composed of nitrogen and methane. Complex chemistry happening in Titan's atmosphere produces optically thick organic hazes. These hazes play significant roles in Titan's atmosphere and on its surface,…

New models challenge the long-standing conclusion about Mimas, an icy satellite of Saturn, being an inactive snowball, suggesting the existence of a young stealth ocean. Unfortunately, no observable evidence has been found yet implying…

The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer aboard the Huygens probe successfully acquired images and spectra of the surface of Titan. To counter the effects of haze and atmospheric methane absorption it carried a Surface Science Lamp to…

Late accretion is a process that strongly modulated surface geomorphic and geochemical features of Mercury. Yet, the fate of the impactors and their effects on Mercury's surface through the bombardment epoch are not clear. Using Monte-Carlo…

Titan's moment of inertia, calculated assuming hydrostatic equilibrium from gravity field data obtained during the Cassini-Huygens mission, implies an internal mass distribution that may be incompatible with complete differentiation. This…

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, has many lakes on its surface, formed mainly of liquid methane. Like water lakes on Earth, these methane lakes on Titan likely profoundly affect the local climate. Previous studies (Rafkin and Soto 2020,…

We apply a 1D upper atmosphere model to study thermal escape of nitrogen over Titan's history. Significant thermal escape should have occurred very early for solar EUV fluxes 100 to 400 times higher than today with escape rates as high as…

While landing on Titan, several instruments onboard Huygens acquired measurements that indicate the probe did not immediately come to rest. Detailed knowledge of the probe's motion can provide insight into the nature of Titan's surface.…

Recent observations have evidenced traces of methane CH4 heterogeneously distributed in the martian atmosphere. However, because the lifetime of CH4 in the atmosphere of Mars is estimated to be around 300-600 years on the basis of…

Using ab initio simulations we investigate whether water ice is stable in the cores of giant planets, or whether it dissolves into the layer of metallic hydrogen above. By Gibbs free energy calculations we find that for pressures between 10…

Ethane is expected to be the dominant photochemical product on Titan's surface and, in the absence of a process that sequesters it from exposed surface reservoirs, a major constituent of its lakes and seas. Absorption of Cassini's 2.2 cm…