Related papers: Stellar Encounters with the Beta Pictoris Planetes…
Using Non-Redundant Mask interferometry (NRM), we searched for binary companions to objects previously classified as Transitional Disks (TD). These objects are thought to be an evolutionary stage between an optically thick disk and…
We study mass transfers between debris discs during stellar encounters. We carried out numerical simulations of close flybys of two stars, one of which has a disc of planetesimals represented by test particles. We explored the parameter…
Stellar flybys in star clusters are suspected to affect the orbital architecture of planetary systems causing eccentricity excitation and orbital misalignment between the planet orbit and the equatorial plane of the star. We explore whether…
The paper presents results from a small survey of 22 young, nearby stars that was designed to detect substellar companions and ultimately giant extrasolar planets down to Jupiter masses. The targets are members of the Tucana and Beta…
We perform a search for faint, common proper motion companions of Hipparcos stars using the recently published LSPM-north catalog of stars with proper motion mu>0.15 arcsec/yr. Our survey uncovers a total of 521 systems with angular…
The external destruction of protoplanetary discs in a clustered environment acts mainly due to two mechanisms: gravitational drag by stellar encounters and evaporation by strong stellar winds and radiation. If encounters play a role in disc…
Most stars form as part of a stellar group. These young stars are mostly surrounded by a disk from which potentially a planetary system might form. Both, the disk and later on the planetary system, may be affected by the cluster environment…
We analyze the effect of companion stars on the bulk density of 29 planets orbiting 15 stars in the Kepler field. These stars have at least one stellar companion within 2", and the planets have measured masses and radii, allowing an…
We consider the deformation that has recently been observed in the inner part of the circumstellar disk around Beta Pictoris with the HST. Our recent ground based adaptive optics coronographic observations confirm that the inner disk is…
A significant fraction of nearby young moving group members harbor circumstellar debris dust disks. Due to their proximity and youth, these disks are attractive targets for studying the early evolution of debris dust and planetesimal belts.…
We have examined consequences of strong tidal encounters between a neutron star and a normal star using SPH as a possible formation mechanism of isolated recycled pulsars in globular clusters. We have made a number of SPH simulations for…
Since giant planets scatter planetesimals within a few tidal radii of their orbits, the locations of existing planetesimal belts indicate regions where giant planet formation failed in bygone protostellar disks. Infrared observations of…
We present a new model of the $\beta$ Pictoris disk-and-planet system that simulates both the planetesimal collisions and the dynamics of the resulting dust grains, allowing us to model features and asymmetries in both thermal and scattered…
Milli-arcsecond astrometry provided by Hipparcos and by radio observations makes it possible to retrace the orbits of nearby runaway stars and pulsars with sufficient accuracy to identify their parent stellar cluster or association. For two…
We explore the impact of outer stellar companions on the occurrence rate of giant planets detected with radial velocities. We searched for stellar and planetary companions to a volume-limited sample of solar-type stars within 25 pc. Using…
We report the findings of a comprehensive study of disk accretion and related phenomena in four of the nearest young stellar associations spanning 6-30 million years in age, an epoch that may coincide with the late stages of planet…
We describe a procedure to identify stars from nearby moving groups and associations out of catalogs of stars with large proper motions. We show that from the mean motion vector of a known or suspected moving group, one can identify…
We use numerical N-body simulations of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) to investigate the destruction of protoplanetary disks by close stellar encounters and UV radiation from massive stars. The simulations model a cluster of 4000 stars, and…
The solar system's Oort cloud can be perturbed by the Galactic tide and by individual passing stars. These perturbations can inject Oort cloud objects into the inner parts of the solar system, where they may be observed as the long-period…
3I/ATLAS, the third discovered interstellar object, has a heliocentric speed of 58 km/s and exhibits cometary activity. To constrain the origin of 3I/ATLAS and its past dynamical evolution, we propagate the orbits of 3I/ATLAS and nearby…