Related papers: On the low-mass planethood criterion
Carbon is an essential element for a habitable world. Inner (r < 3 au) disk planetary carbon compositions are strongly influenced by supply and survival of carbonaceous solids. Here we trace the journey of carbon from the interstellar…
We develop an idealized dynamical model to predict the typical properties of outer extrasolar planetary systems, at radii beyond 5 AU. Our hypothesis is that dynamical evolution in outer planetary systems is controlled by a combination of…
Many multiply--imaged quasars have been found over the years, but none so far with image separation in excess of $8\arcsec$. The absence of such large splittings has been used as a test of cosmological models: the standard Cold Dark Matter…
We present a model for the equilibrium of solid planetary cores embedded in a gaseous nebula. From this model we are able to extract an idealized roadmap of all hydrostatic states of the isothermal protoplanets. The complete classification…
In the core accretion paradigm of planet formation, gas giants only form a massive atmosphere after their progenitors exceeded a threshold mass: the critical core mass. Most (exo)planets, being smaller and rock/ice-dominated, never crossed…
In the derivation of the Einstein field equations via Hamilton's principle, the inclusion of a boundary term is essential to render the variational problem well-posed, as it addresses variations that do not vanish at the boundary of the…
This paper summarizes the physical mechanisms that encode the type and quantity of cosmological matter in the properties of large-scale structure, and reviews the application of such tests to current datasets. The key lengths of the horizon…
Polarized scattering in planetary atmospheres is computed in the context of exoplanets. The problem of polarized radiative transfer is solved for a general case of absorption and scattering, while Rayleigh and Mie polarized scattering are…
Transiting planet surveys like Kepler have provided a wealth of information on the distribution of planetary radii, particularly for the new populations of super-Earth and sub-Neptune sized planets. In order to aid in the physical…
Restrictions on the neutrino masses and lepton mixing are reviewed. Solar, atmospheric and relic neutrinos give the indications of existence of nonzero neutrino masses and mixing. The data pick up two regions of mixing angles which are or…
Planetary systems formed in clusters may be subject to stellar encounter flybys. Here we create a diverse range of representative planetary systems with different orbital scales and planets' masses and examine encounters between them in a…
In the present work we show that planetary mean distances can be calculated with the help of a Schrodinger-type diffusion equation. The obtained results are shown to agree with the observed orbits of all the planets and of the asteroid belt…
We conduct gas and dust hydrodynamical simulations of protoplanetary discs with one and two embedded planets to determine the impact that a second planet located further out in the disc has on the potential for subsequent planet formation…
The study of planetary atmospheres is critical to our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Solar System. The combined effect of various physical and chemical processes over billions of years have resulted in a variety of…
Planets in extrasolar systems tend to interact such that their orbits lie near a boundary between apsidal libration and circulation, a "separatrix", with one eccentricity periodically reaching near-zero. One explanation, applied to the…
The basic structure of the solar system is set by the presence of low-mass terrestrial planets in its inner part and giant planets in its outer part. This is the result of the formation of a system of multiple embryos with approximately the…
Probing the interiors of the gas giant planets in our Solar System is not an easy task. It requires a set of accurate measurements combined with theoretical models that are used to infer the planetary composition and its depth dependence.…
Small planets ($\sim$1--3.9 $\Rearth$) constitute more than half of the inventory of the 4000-plus exoplanets discovered so far. Smaller planets are sufficiently dense to be rocky, but those with radii larger than $\sim$1.6 $\Rearth$ are…
Gravitational scattering of small bodies (planetesimals) by a planet remains a fundamental problem in celestial mechanics. It is traditionally modeled within the circular restricted three-body problem (CR3BP), where individual particle…
If the photospheres of solar-type stars represent the composition of circumstellar disks from which any planets formed, spectroscopic determinations of stellar elemental abundances offer information on the composition of those planets,…