203 citations · 588 across the 8 of their papers we have counts for
13 papers · 1 filter
On the Origin of Pluto's Minor Moons, Nix and Hydra
Yoram Lithwick, Yanqin Wu
How did Pluto's recently discovered minor moons form? Ward and Canup propose an elegant solution in which Nix and Hydra formed in the collision that produced Charon, then were caug…
The Effect of Charon's Tidal Damping on the Orbits of Pluto's Three Moons
Yoram Lithwick, Yanqin Wu
Pluto's recently discovered minor moons, Nix and Hydra, have almost circular orbits, and are nearly coplanar with Charon, Pluto's major moon. This is surprising because tidal inter…
Outer edges of debris discs: how sharp is sharp?
Philippe Thebault, Yanqin Wu
Ring-like features have been observed in several debris discs. Outside the main ring, while some systems exhibit smooth surface brightness profiles (SB) that fall off roughly as r*…
Hot Jupiters in binary star systems
Yanqin Wu, Norman W. Murray, J. Michael Ramsahai
Radial velocity surveys find Jupiter mass planets with semi-major axes a less than 0.1 AU around ~1% of solar-type stars; counting planets with as large as 5 AU, the fraction o…
From mean-motion resonances to scattered planets: Producing the Solar System, eccentric exoplanets and Late Heavy Bombardments
Edward W. Thommes, Geoffrey Bryden, Yanqin Wu +1
We show that interaction with a gas disk may produce young planetary systems with closely-spaced orbits, stabilized by mean-motion resonances between neighbors. On longer timescale…
Formation of Narrow Dust Rings in Circumstellar Debris Disks
Gurtina Besla, Yanqin Wu
Narrow dust rings observed around some young stars (e.g., HR 4796A) need to be confined. We present a possible explanation for the formation and confinement of such rings in optica…