6 papers
Predicted Ejecta Dynamics and Observability of the 2026 Falcon 9 Upper Stage Lunar Impact
William Jo, David B. Goldstein, Philip L. Varghese +3
On Aug. 5 at 06:34 UTC, a Falcon 9 upper stage (~3,900 kg) will strike the lunar surface at 2.43 km/s, yielding a potentially visible debris plume. We present a study of the expect…
Transport of water in a Transient, Impact-Generated Atmosphere on Mercury
Jordan K. Steckloff, David B. Goldstein, Philip L. Varghese +2
Mercury's polar cold traps host water ice deposits that are likely populated with impact-delivered water via Mercury's exosphere. However, Mercury's near-sun location experiences a…
Size limits on tidal debris around white dwarfs: the km-size barrier
Jordan K. Steckloff, Dimitri Veras, Kathryn Volk
Compact disks of planetary debris orbiting white dwarfs provide a crucial window into our understanding of evolved planetary systems. The formation of these disks has been widely m…
Producing planetary debris exterior to white dwarf Roche radii through sublimative rotational fission
Dimitri Veras, Jordan K. Steckloff, Kathryn Volk
The majority of white dwarfs that host periodic transiting planetary debris do so at distances that exceed the rubble-pile Roche limit, in disagreement with canonical formation mod…
Impacts into Titan's methane-clathrate crust as a source of atmospheric methane
Shigeru Wakita, Brandon C. Johnson, Jason M. Soderblom +5
Titan is the only icy satellite in the solar system with a dense atmosphere. This atmosphere is composed primarily of nitrogen with a few percent methane, which supports an active,…
Outbursts Upon Cooling of Low-Temperature Binary Mixtures: Experiments and Their Planetary Implications
S. M. Raposa, A. E. Engle, S. P. Tan +7
For many binary mixtures, the three-phase solid-liquid-vapor equilibrium curve has intermediate pressures that are higher than the pressure at the two pure triple points. This curv…