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A collision in 2009 as the origin of the debris trail of asteroid P/2010A2
Carry, Benoit; Weissman, Paul R.; Tubiana, Cecilia +16 more
The peculiar object P/2010A2 was discovered in January 2010 and given a cometary designation because of the presence of a trail of material, although there was no central condensation or coma. The appearance of this object, in an asteroidal orbit (small eccentricity and inclination) in the inner main asteroid belt attracted attention as a potentia…
Warm water vapour in the sooty outflow from a luminous carbon star
Ivison, R. J.; Blommaert, J. A. D. L.; Olofsson, G. +34 more
The detection of circumstellar water vapour around the ageing carbon star IRC +10216 challenged the current understanding of chemistry in old stars, because water was predicted to be almost absent in carbon-rich stars. Several explanations for the water were postulated, including the vaporization of icy bodies (comets or dwarf planets) in orbit ar…
A transiting giant planet with a temperature between 250K and 430K
Mazeh, T.; Aigrain, S.; Alonso, R. +58 more
Of the over 400 known exoplanets, there are about 70 planets that transit their central star, a situation that permits the derivation of their basic parameters and facilitates investigations of their atmospheres. Some short-period planets, including the first terrestrial exoplanet (CoRoT-7b), have been discovered using a space mission designed to …
Solar system: Recipe for making Saturn's rings
Charnoz, Sébastien; Crida, Aurélien
Simulations show that the still-mysterious origin of Saturn's vast, icy rings could be explained by the 'peeling' by Saturn's tides of the icy mantle of a large satellite migrating towards the planet. See Letter p.943
Planetary science: The birth of Saturn's baby moons
Burns, Joseph A.
Simulations show that Saturn's nearby moons, after forming on the outskirts of the planet's main rings, get pushed clear of them. This model reproduces the moons' orbital locations and remarkably low densities.