Search

One of the key goals of the Rosetta mission was to understand how, where and when comets formed in our solar system. There are two major hypotheses for the origin of comets, both pre-Rosetta: (1) hierarchical accretion of dust and ice grains in the Solar Nebula and (2) the growth of pebbles, which are then brought together by streaming instabilities in the Solar Nebula to form larger bodies. Rosetta provided a wealth of new information on comet nuclei and confirmed many past ideas on comets, e.g., high volatile content, lack of aqueous alteration of grains, and the low bulk density of the nucleus. Rosetta also provided new data on the nature of cometary activity, the active geology on the nucleus surface and the interior structure and bulk density of the nucleus. Supporters of the above-mentioned origin hypotheses each find confirmation of their ideas in the Rosetta results. But the question of which hypothesis is preferred, or if there are other, better hypotheses that could be invoked, could not be answered. Theoretical studies suggest that comet nuclei were collisionally processed in the Primordial Disk though it is not clear that the nuclei we see today display the effects of that process. Both theoretical and observational studies suggest that the major end-states for cometary nuclei are dynamical ejection, random disruption and disintegration, and/or evolution of nuclei to inactive, asteroidal-appearing objects. Rosetta has provided us with many new insights that will help to guide future cometary missions, observations, experiments and theoretical investigations that will lead to answers to the fundamental questions with regard to cometary origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the generally accepted scenario, the last giant impact on Earth formed the Moon and initiated the final phase of core formation by melting Earth's mantle. A key goal of geochemistry is to date this event, but different ages have been proposed. Some argue for an early Moon-forming event, approximately 30 million years (Myr) after the condensation of the first solids in the Solar System, whereas others claim a date later than 50 Myr (and possibly as late as around 100 Myr) after condensation. Here we show that a Moon-forming event at 40 Myr after condensation, or earlier, is ruled out at a 99.9 per cent confidence level. We use a large number of N-body simulations to demonstrate a relationship between the time of the last giant impact on an Earth-like planet and the amount of mass subsequently added during the era known as Late Accretion. As the last giant impact is delayed, the late-accreted mass decreases in a predictable fashion. This relationship exists within both the classical scenario and the Grand Tack scenario of terrestrial planet formation, and holds across a wide range of disk conditions. The concentration of highly siderophile elements (HSEs) in Earth's mantle constrains the mass of chondritic material added to Earth during Late Accretion. Using HSE abundance measurements, we determine a Moon-formation age of 95 ± 32 Myr after condensation. The possibility exists that some late projectiles were differentiated and left an incomplete HSE record in Earth's mantle. Even in this case, various isotopic constraints strongly suggest that the late-accreted mass did not exceed 1 per cent of Earth's mass, and so the HSE clock still robustly limits the timing of the Moon-forming event to significantly later than 40 Myr after condensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of resonance overlap, planetary systems can exhibit chaotic motion. Planetary chaos has been studied extensively in the Hamiltonian framework, however, the presence of chaotic motion in systems where dissipative effects are important, has not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we study the onset of stochastic motion in presence of dissipation, in the context of classical perturbation theory, and show that planetary systems approach chaos via a period-doubling route as dissipation is gradually reduced. Furthermore, we demonstrate that chaotic strange attractors can exist in mildly damped systems. The results presented here are of interest for understanding the early dynamical evolution of chaotic planetary systems, as they may have transitioned to chaos from a quasi-periodic state, dominated by dissipative interactions with the birth nebula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of resonance overlap, planetary systems can exhibit chaotic motion. Planetary chaos has been studied extensively in the Hamiltonian framework, however, the presence of chaotic motion in systems where dissipative effects are important, has not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we study the onset of stochastic motion in presence of dissipation, in the context of classical perturbation theory, and show that planetary systems approach chaos via a period-doubling route as dissipation is gradually reduced. Furthermore, we demonstrate that chaotic strange attractors can exist in mildly damped systems. The results presented here are of interest for understanding the early dynamical evolution of chaotic planetary systems, as they may have transitioned to chaos from a quasi-periodic state, dominated by dissipative interactions with the birth nebula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jupiter and Saturn formed in a few million years (ref. 1) from a gas-dominated protoplanetary disk, and were susceptible to gas-driven migration of their orbits on timescales of only ?100,000 years (ref. 2). Hydrodynamic simulations show that these giant planets can undergo a two-stage, inward-then-outward, migration. The terrestrial planets finished accreting much later, and their characteristics, including Mars' small mass, are best reproduced by starting from a planetesimal disk with an outer edge at about one astronomical unit from the Sun (1?au is the Earth-Sun distance). Here we report simulations of the early Solar System that show how the inward migration of Jupiter to 1.5?au, and its subsequent outward migration, lead to a planetesimal disk truncated at 1?au; the terrestrial planets then form from this disk over the next 30-50 million years, with an Earth/Mars mass ratio consistent with observations. Scattering by Jupiter initially empties but then repopulates the asteroid belt, with inner-belt bodies originating between 1 and 3?au and outer-belt bodies originating between and beyond the giant planets. This explains the significant compositional differences across the asteroid belt. The key aspect missing from previous models of terrestrial planet formation is the substantial radial migration of the giant planets, which suggests that their behaviour is more similar to that inferred for extrasolar planets than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telescopic measurements of asteroids’ colours rarely match laboratory reflectance spectra of meteorites owing to a ‘space weathering’ process that rapidly reddens asteroid surfaces in less than 106 years. ‘Unweathered’ asteroids (those having spectra matching the most commonly falling ordinary chondrite meteorites), however, are seen among small bodies the orbits of which cross inside Mars and the Earth. Various explanations have been proposed for the origin of these fresh surface colours, ranging from collisions to planetary encounters. Less reddened asteroids seem to cross most deeply into the terrestrial planet region, strengthening the evidence for the planetary-encounter theory, but encounter details within 106 years remain to be shown. Here we report that asteroids displaying unweathered spectra (so-called ‘Q-types’) have experienced orbital intersections closer than the Earth–Moon distance within the past 5 × 105 years. These Q-type asteroids are not currently found among asteroids showing no evidence of recent close planetary encounters. Our results substantiate previous work: tidal stress, strong enough to disturb and expose unweathered surface grains, is the most likely dominant short-term asteroid resurfacing process. Although the seismology details are yet to be worked out, the identification of rapid physical processes that can produce both fresh and weathered asteroid surfaces resolves the decades-long puzzle of the difference in colour of asteroids and meteorites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Moon is generally thought to have formed from the debris ejected by the impact of a planet-sized object with the proto-Earth towards the end of planetary accretion. Models of the impact process predict that the lunar material was disaggregated into a circumplanetary disk and that lunar accretion subsequently placed the Moon in a near-equatorial orbit. Forward integration of the lunar orbit from this initial state predicts a modern inclination at least an order of magnitude smaller than the lunar value-a long-standing discrepancy known as the lunar inclination problem. Here we show that the modern lunar orbit provides a sensitive record of gravitational interactions with Earth-crossing planetesimals that were not yet accreted at the time of the Moon-forming event. The currently observed lunar orbit can naturally be reproduced via interaction with a small quantity of mass (corresponding to 0.0075-0.015 Earth masses eventually accreted to the Earth) carried by a few bodies, consistent with the constraints and models of late accretion. Although the encounter process has a stochastic element, the observed value of the lunar inclination is among the most likely outcomes for a wide range of parameters. The excitation of the lunar orbit is most readily reproduced via collisionless encounters of planetesimals with the Earth-Moon system with strong dissipation of tidal energy on the early Earth. This mechanism obviates the need for previously proposed (but idealized) excitation mechanisms, places the Moon-forming event in the context of the formation of Earth, and constrains the pristineness of the dynamical state of the Earth-Moon system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive planets form within the lifetime of protoplanetary disks, and therefore, they are subject to orbital migration due to planet-disk interactions. When the first planet reaches the inner edge of the disk, its migration stops and consequently the second planet ends up locked in resonance with the first one. We detail how the resonant trapping works comparing semi-analytical formulae and numerical simulations. We restrict to the case of two equal-mass coplanar planets trapped in first-order resonances, but the method can be easily generalized. We first describe the family of resonant stable equilibrium points (zero-amplitude libration orbits) using series expansions up to different orders in eccentricity as well as a non-expanded Hamiltonian. Then we show that during convergent migration the planets evolve along these families of equilibrium points. Eccentricity damping from the disk leads to a final equilibrium configuration that we predict precisely analytically. The fact that observed multi-exoplanetary systems are rarely seen in resonances suggests that in most cases the resonant configurations achieved by migration become unstable after the removal of the protoplanetary disk. Here we probe the stability of the resonances as a function of planetary mass. For this purpose, we fictitiously increase the masses of resonant planets, adiabatically maintaining the low-amplitude libration regime until instability occurs. We discuss two hypotheses for the instability, that of a low-order secondary resonance of the libration frequency with a fast synodic frequency of the system, and that of minimal approach distance between planets. We show that secondary resonances do not seem to impact resonant systems at low amplitude of libration. Resonant systems are more stable than non-resonant ones for a given minimal distance at close encounters, but we show that the latter nevertheless play the decisive role in the destabilization of resonant pairs. We show evidence that as the planetary mass increases and the minimal distance between planets gets smaller in terms of mutual Hill radius, the region of stability around the resonance center shrinks, until the equilibrium point itself becomes unstable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the collisional families, which are clusters of the solar system bodies which are formed when their parent body breaks up on being hit by projectiles. The first collisional family has been discovered among objects in the Kuiper belt, which lies on the boundary of the Solar System. For a collisional family to be observed from Earth, its parent should have been hit with enough energy to disperse a large number of large fragments.

The article focuses on the proposed model for the capture of Triton which will become a mainstay for models of the origin of irregular satellites. The capture mechanism requires that their orbital velocity inside the binary is large enough to cancel out a substantial fraction of the velocity of the binary barycenter.

Primitive objects like comets hold important information on the material that formed our solar system. Several comets have been visited by spacecraft and many more have been observed through Earth- and space-based telescopes. Still our understanding remains limited. Molecular abundances in comets have been shown to be similar to interstellar ices and thus indicate that common processes and conditions were involved in their formation. The samples returned by the Stardust mission to comet Wild 2 showed that the bulk refractory material was processed by high temperatures in the vicinity of the early sun. The recent Rosetta mission acquired a wealth of new data on the composition of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (hereafter 67P/C-G) and complemented earlier observations of other comets. The isotopic, elemental, and molecular abundances of the volatile, semi-volatile, and refractory phases brought many new insights into the origin and processing of the incorporated material. The emerging picture after Rosetta is that at least part of the volatile material was formed before the solar system and that cometary nuclei agglomerated over a wide range of heliocentric distances, different from where they are found today. Deviations from bulk solar system abundances indicate that the material was not fully homogenized at the location of comet formation, despite the radial mixing implied by the Stardust results. Post-formation evolution of the material might play an important role, which further complicates the picture. This paper discusses these major findings of the Rosetta mission with respect to the origin of the material and puts them in the context of what we know from other comets and solar system objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The barrage of comets and asteroids that produced many young lunar basins (craters over 300 kilometres in diameter) has frequently been called the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB). Many assume the LHB ended about 3.7 to 3.8 billion years (Gyr) ago with the formation of Orientale basin. Evidence for LHB-sized blasts on Earth, however, extend into the Archaean and early Proterozoic eons, in the form of impact spherule beds: globally distributed ejecta layers created by Chicxulub-sized or larger cratering events. At least seven spherule beds have been found that formed between 3.23 and 3.47?Gyr ago, four between 2.49 and 2.63?Gyr ago, and one between 1.7 and 2.1?Gyr ago. Here we report that the LHB lasted much longer than previously thought, with most late impactors coming from the E belt, an extended and now largely extinct portion of the asteroid belt between 1.7 and 2.1 astronomical units from Earth. This region was destabilized by late giant planet migration. E-belt survivors now make up the high-inclination Hungaria asteroids. Scaling from the observed Hungaria asteroids, we find that E-belt projectiles made about ten lunar basins between 3.7 and 4.1?Gyr ago. They also produced about 15 terrestrial basins between 2.5 and 3.7?Gyr ago, as well as around 70 and four Chicxulub-sized or larger craters on the Earth and Moon, respectively, between 1.7 and 3.7?Gyr ago. These rates reproduce impact spherule bed and lunar crater constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our present understanding of the Solar System, small bodies (asteroids, Jupiter Trojans, comets and TNOs) are the most direct remnants of the original building blocks that formed the planets. Jupiter Trojan and Hilda asteroids are small primitive bodies located beyond the 'snow line', around respectively the L and L Lagrange points of Jupiter at ∼5.2 AU (Trojans) and in the 2:3 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter near 3.9 AU (Hildas). They are at the crux of several outstanding and still conflicting issues regarding the formation and evolution of the Solar System. They hold the potential to unlock the answers to fundamental questions about planetary migration, the late heavy bombardment, the formation of the Jovian system, the origin and evolution of trans-neptunian objects, and the delivery of water and organics to the inner planets. The proposed Trojans' Odyssey mission is envisioned as a reconnaissance, multiple flyby mission aimed at visiting several objects, typically five Trojans and one Hilda. It will attempt exploring both large and small objects and sampling those with any known differences in photometric properties. The orbital strategy consists in a direct trajectory to one of the Trojan swarms. By carefully choosing the aphelion of the orbit (typically 5.3 AU), the trajectory will offer a long arc in the swarm thus maximizing the number of flybys. Initial gravity assists from Venus and Earth will help reducing the cruise time as well as the ΔV needed for injection thus offering enough capacity to navigate among Trojans. This solution further opens the unique possibility to flyby a Hilda asteroid when leaving the Trojan swarm. During the cruise phase, a Main Belt Asteroid could be targeted if requiring a modest ΔV. The specific science objectives of the mission will be best achieved with a payload that will perform high-resolution panchromatic and multispectral imaging, thermal-infrared imaging/ radiometry, near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy, and radio science/mass determination. The total mass of the payload amounts to 50 kg (including margins). The spacecraft is in the class of Mars-Express or a down-scaled version of Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter. It will have a dry mass of 1200 kg, a total mass at launch of 3070 kg and a ΔV capability of 700 m/s (after having reached the first Trojan) and can be launched by a Soyuz rocket. The mission operations concept (ground segment) and science operations are typical of a planetary mission as successfully implemented by ESA during, for instance, the recent flybys of Main Belt asteroids Steins and Lutetia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron meteorites are core fragments from differentiated and subsequently disrupted planetesimals. The parent bodies are usually assumed to have formed in the main asteroid belt, which is the source of most meteorites. Observational evidence, however, does not indicate that differentiated bodies or their fragments were ever common there. This view is also difficult to reconcile with the fact that the parent bodies of iron meteorites were as small as 20 km in diameter and that they formed 1–2 Myr earlier than the parent bodies of the ordinary chondrites. Here we show that the iron-meteorite parent bodies most probably formed in the terrestrial planet region. Fast accretion times there allowed small planetesimals to melt early in Solar System history by the decay of short-lived radionuclides (such as 26Al, 60Fe). The protoplanets emerging from this population not only induced collisional evolution among the remaining planetesimals but also scattered some of the survivors into the main belt, where they stayed for billions of years before escaping via a combination of collisions, Yarkovsky thermal forces, and resonances. We predict that some asteroids are main-belt interlopers (such as (4) Vesta). A select few may even be remnants of the long-lost precursor material that formed the Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main asteroid belt, which inhabits a relatively narrow annulus ∼2.1–3.3 au from the Sun, contains a surprising diversity of objects ranging from primitive ice–rock mixtures to igneous rocks. The standard model used to explain this assumes that most asteroids formed in situ from a primordial disk that experienced radical chemical changes within this zone. Here we show that the violent dynamical evolution of the giant-planet orbits required by the so-called Nice model leads to the insertion of primitive trans-Neptunian objects into the outer belt. This result implies that the observed diversity of the asteroid belt is not a direct reflection of the intrinsic compositional variation of the proto-planetary disk. The dark captured bodies, composed of organic-rich materials, would have been more susceptible to collisional evolution than typical main-belt asteroids. Their weak nature makes them a prodigious source of micrometeorites—sufficient to explain why most are primitive in composition and are isotopically different from most macroscopic meteorites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews habitability conditions for a terrestrial planet from the point of view of geosciences. It addresses how interactions between the interior of a planet or a moon and its atmosphere and surface (including hydrosphere and biosphere) can affect habitability of the celestial body. It does not consider in detail the role of the central star but focusses more on surface conditions capable of sustaining life. We deal with fundamental issues of planetary habitability, i.e. the environmental conditions capable of sustaining life, and the above-mentioned interactions can affect the habitability of the celestial body. We address some hotly debated questions including: How do core and mantle affect the evolution and habitability of planets? What are the consequences of mantle overturn on the evolution of the interior and atmosphere? What is the role of the global carbon and water cycles? What influence do comet and asteroid impacts exert on the evolution of the planet? How does life interact with the evolution of the Earth's geosphere and atmosphere? How can knowledge of the solar system geophysics and habitability be applied to exoplanets? In addition, we address the identification of preserved life tracers in the context of the interaction of life with planetary evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]