Related papers: Inelastic Dissipation in Wobbling Asteroids and Co…
We investigate the rotational properties of a two-component, two-dimensional self-bound quantum droplet, which is confined in a harmonic potential and compare them with the well-known problem of a single-component atomic gas with contact…
Tidal dissipation in planets and stars is one of the key physical mechanisms driving the evolution of star-planet and planet-moon systems. Several signatures of its action are observed in planetary systems thanks to their orbital…
A cratered asteroid acts somewhat like a retroflector, sending light and infrared radiation back toward the Sun, while thermal inertia in a rotating asteroid causes the infrared radiation to peak over the ``afternoon'' part. In this paper a…
Dynamical instability is shown to occur in differentially rotating polytropes with N = 3.33 and $T/|W| \gtrsim 0.14$. This instability has a strong m=1 mode, although the m=2, 3, and 4 modes also appear. Such instability may allow a…
Disks of low-mass bodies scattered by giant planets to large semi-major axis and constant periapsis orbits are vulnerable to a buckling instability. This instability exponentially grows orbital inclinations, raises periapsis distances, and…
The phenomenon known as the tennis racket effect is observed when a rigid body experiences unstable rotation around its intermediate axis. In free space, this leads to the Dzhanibekov effect, where triaxial objects like a spinning wing bolt…
Self-oscillations underlie many natural phenomena such as heartbeat, ocean waves, and the pulsation of variable stars. From pendulum clocks to the behavior of animal groups, self-oscillation is one of the keys to the understanding of…
Motion of many comets is affected by non-gravitational forces caused by outgassing from their surfaces. Outgassing also produces reactive torques resulting in cometary spin evolution. We propose that the two processes are correlated and…
In close binary stars, the tidal excitation of pulsations typically dissipates energy, causing the system to evolve towards a circular orbit with aligned and synchronized stellar spins. However, for stars with self-excited pulsations, we…
We study the response of star clusters to individual tidal perturbations using controlled $N$-body simulations. We consider perturbations by a moving point mass and by a disc, and vary the duration of the perturbation as well as the cluster…
Inertial waves transport energy and momentum in rotating fluids and are a major contributor to mixing and tidal dissipation in Earth's oceans, gaseous planets, and stellar interiors. However, their stability and breakdown mechanisms are not…
Interstellar bubbles appear to be smaller in observations than expected from calculations. Instabilities at the shell boundaries create three-dimensional ef- fects, and are probably responsible for part of this discrepancy. We investigate…
The thermal inertia of an asteroid is an indicator of the thermophysical properties of the regolith and is determined by the size of grains on the surface. Previous thermophysical modeling studies of asteroids have identified or suggested…
We investigate the problem of determining the shape of a rotating celestial object - e.g., a comet or an asteroid - under its own gravitational field. More specifically, we consider an object symmetric with respect to one axis - such as a…
Extrasolar debris disks are detected by observing dust, which is thought to be released during planetesimal collisions. This implies that planetesimals are dynamically excited ("stirred"), such that collisions are sufficiently common and…
Thermal emission from a rotating, supermassive star will cause the configuration to contract slowly and spin up. If internal viscosity and magnetic fields are sufficiently weak, the contracting star will rotate differentially. For each of…
Many asteroids are rubble piles with irregular shapes. While the irregular shapes of large asteroids may be attributed to collisional events, those of small asteroids may result from not only impact events but also rotationally induced…
We study the reaction of a globular star cluster to a time-varying tidal perturbation (gravitational shock) using self-consistent N-body simulations and address two questions. First, to what extent is the cluster interior protected by…
Many accretion discs are thought to be warped. Recent hydrodynamical simulations show that (i) discs can break into distinct planes when the amplitude of an imposed warp is sufficiently high and the viscosity sufficiently low, and that (ii)…
Results from the TESS mission showed that previous studies strngly underestimated the number of slow rotators, revealing the importance of studying those asteroids. For most slowly rotating asteroids (P > 12), no spin and shape model is…