Related papers: The meteoroid hazard for space navigation

Current and upcoming large optical and near-infrared astronomical surveys have fundamental science as their primary drivers. To cater to those, these missions scan large fractions of the entire sky at multiple wavelengths and epochs. These…

We identify a new mechanism that can lead to the destruction of small, close-in planetary satellites. If a small moon close to the planet has a sizable eccentricity and inclination, its ejecta that escape to planetocentric orbit would often…

The excitations of nonlinear magnetosonic waves in presence of charged space debris in the low Earth orbital plasma region is investigated taking into account effects of electron inertia in the framework of classical magnetohydrodynamics,…

We investigate whether the inclusion of baryonic physics influences the formation of thin, coherently rotating planes of satellites such as those seen around the Milky Way and Andromeda. For four Milky Way-mass simulations, each run both as…

Laser sails propelled by gigawatt-scale ground-based laser arrays have the potential to reach relativistic speeds, traversing the solar system in hours and reaching nearby stars in years. Here, we describe the danger interplanetary dust…

We present some recent highlights and prospects for the study of hot astrophysical plasmas. Hot plasmas can be studied primarily through their X-ray emission and absorption. Most astrophysical objects, from solar system objects to the…

There is an effect in the modified dynamics (MOND) that is conducive to formation of warps. Because of the nonlinearity of the theory the internal dynamics of a galaxy is affected by a perturber over and above possible tidal effects. For…

In collision-poor plasmas from space, e.g., solar wind, terrestrial magnetospheres, kinetic instabilities are expected to play a major role in constraining the temperature anisotropy of plasma particles, but a definitive answer can be given…

The infall of a satellite galaxy onto a galactic disk generally brings in angular momentum that is not aligned with the axis of the disk. The main dynamical issues addressed are what fraction of the orbital angular momentum of the satellite…

The Earth is impacted by 35-40 metre-scale objects every year. These meteoroids are the low mass end of impactors that can do damage on the ground. Despite this they are very poorly surveyed and characterised, too infrequent for ground…

The space environment around the Earth is populated by more than 130 million objects of 1 mm in size and larger, and future predictions shows that this amount is destined to increase, even if mitigation measures are implemented at a far…

This article aims to highlight the impact for ground based astronomical observations in different windows of the electromagnetic spectrum coming from the deployment of fleets of telecommunications satellites. A particular attention is given…

Perturbations of satellite orbits in the gravitational field of a body with a mass monopole and arbitrary spin multipole moments are considered for an axisymmetric and stationary situation. Periodic and secular effects caused by the central…

During solar storms, the polar cusp often exhibits electron populations with distinct velocity distributions, which may be associated with the two-stream instability. This study reveals the evolution of the two-stream instability associated…

(Abbreviated) We investigate the dynamical mechanisms responsible for producing tidal tails from dwarf satellites using N-body simulations. We identify two important dynamical co-conspirators: 1) the points where the attractive force of the…

Large compressions of the magnetopause are proposed to occasionally result from temporary encounters of the magnetosphere with dust streams in interplanetary space. Such streams may have their origin in cometary dust tails or asteroids…

In studies of the oldest solar system bodies - comets and asteroids - it is their fragments - meteoroids - that provide the most accessible planetary material for detailed laboratory analysis in the form of dust particles or meteorites.…

Spacecraft potential has often been used to infer electron density with much higher time resolution than is typically possible with plasma instruments. However, recently two studies by Torkar et al. 2017 and Graham et al. 2018 have shown…

Mirrors are a subset of optical components essential for the success of current and future space missions. Most of the telescopes for space programs ranging from Earth Observation to Astrophysics and covering all the electromagnetic…

Partially ionized plasmas are found across the Universe in many different astrophysical environments. They constitute an essential ingredient of the solar atmosphere, molecular clouds, planetary ionospheres and protoplanetary disks, among…