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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 re-impact with much higher velocity due to the satellite's and the fragment's orbits precessing out of alignment. If the impacts of returning ejecta result in net erosion, a runaway process can occur which may end in disruption of the satellite, and we term this process ``sesquinary catastrophe''. We expect the moon to re-accrete, but on an orbit with significantly lower eccentricity and inclination. We find that the large majority of small close-in moons in the Solar System, have orbits that are immune to sesquinary catastrophe. The exceptions include a number of resonant moonlets of Saturn for which resonances may affect the velocities of re-impact of their own debris. Additionally, we find that Neptune's moon Naiad (and to a lesser degree, Jupiter's Thebe) must have substantial internal strength, in line with prior estimates based on Roche limit stability. We also find that sesquinary instability puts important constraints on the plausible past orbits of Phobos and Deimos or their progenitors., Comment: Accepted for ApJ

Recent spacecraft and radar observations have found that ~70 percent of short-period comet nuclei, mostly Jupiter-family comets (JFCs), have bilobate shapes (two masses connected by a narrow neck). This is in stark contrast to the shapes of asteroids of similar sizes, of which ~14% are bilobate. This suggests that a process or mechanism unique to comets is producing these shapes. Here we show that the bilobate shapes of JFC nuclei are a natural byproduct of sublimative activity during their dynamical migration from their trans-Neptunian reservoir, through the Centaur population, and into the Jupiter family. We model the torques resulting from volatile sublimation during this dynamical migration and find that they tend to spin up these nuclei to disruption. Once disrupted, the rubble pile-like material properties of comet nuclei (tensile strengths of ~1-10 Pa and internal friction angles of ~35$^\circ$) cause them to reform as bilobate objects. We find that JFCs likely experienced rotational disruption events prior to entering the Jupiter family, which could explain the prevalence of bilobate shapes. These results suggest that the bilobate shapes of observed comets developed recently in their history (within the past ~1-10 Myr), rather than during solar system formation or collisions during planet migration and residency in the trans-Neptunian population.

We numerically explore the possibility that the large orbital inclination of the martian satellite Deimos originated in an orbital resonance with an ancient inner satellite of Mars more massive than Phobos. We find that Deimos's inclination can be reliably generated by outward evolution of a martian satellite that is about 20 times more massive than Phobos through the 3:1 mean-motion resonance with Deimos at 3.3 Mars radii. This outward migration, in the opposite direction from tidal evolution within the synchronous radius, requires interaction with a past massive ring of Mars. Our results therefore strongly support the cyclic martian ring-satellite hypothesis of Hesselbrock and Minton (2017). Our findings, combined with the model of Hesselbrock and Minton (2017), suggest that the age of the surface of Deimos is about 3.5-4 Gyr, and require Phobos to be significantly younger., Comment: Accepted for ApJL

Small craters of the lunar maria are observed to be in a state of equilibrium, in which the rate of production of new craters is, on average, equal to the rate of destruction of old craters. Crater counts of multiple lunar terrains over decades consistently show that the equilibrium cumulative size-frequency distribution (SFD) per unit area of small craters of radius >r is proportional r^(-2), and that the total crater density is a few percent of so-called geometric saturation, which is the maximum theoretical packing density of circular features. While it has long been known that the primary crater destruction mechanism for these small craters is steady diffusive degradation, there are few quantitative constraints on the processes that determine the degradation rate of meter to kilometer scale lunar surface features. Here we combine analytical modeling with a Monte Carlo landscape evolution code known as the Cratered Terrain Evolution Model to place constraints on which processes control the observed equilibrium size-frequency distribution for small craters. We find that the impacts by small distal ejecta fragments, distributed in spatially heterogeneous rays, is the largest contributor to the diffusive degradation which controls the equilibrium SFD of small craters. Other degradation or crater removal mechanisms, such cookie cutting, ejecta burial, seismic shaking, and micrometeoroid bombardment, likely contribute very little to the diffusive topographic degradation of the lunar maria at the meter scale and larger., Comment: 43 pages, 18 figures, 1 table

In coupled ring-satellite systems, satellites exchange angular momentum with both the primary through tides and with the ring through Lindblad torques, and may exchange material with the ring through accretion and tidal disruption. Here we show that these coupled ring-satellite systems fall into three distinct dynamical regimes, which we refer to as `Boomerang,' `Slingshot,' and `Torque-Dependent.' These regimes are determined by the relative locations of the Fluid Roche Limit, the synchronous orbit, and the location of the maximum orbit that Lindblad torques can perturb a satellite. Satellites that accrete from rings in the Boomerang regime remain interior to the synchronous orbit, and may be driven back toward the primary by tides. Satellites that accrete from rings in the Slingshot regime form exterior to the synchronous orbit, and are always driven away from the primary. Satellites that accrete from rings in the Torque-Dependent regime may exhibit either Boomerang or Slingshot behavior, depending on ring and satellite masses. We consider both known and hypothesized ring/satellite systems in the solar system, and identify which of these three regimes they fall into. We determine that Uranus exists within the Torque-Dependent regime. Using the RING-MOONS code, which models the dynamical evolution of coupled ring-satellite systems, we show that the Uranian satellite Miranda may have accreted from a massive ancient Roche-interior ring and followed a Slingshot-like dynamical path to its present orbit beyond the synchronous orbit, while satellites that accreted after Miranda followed Boomerang-like evolution paths and remained interior to the synchronous orbit., Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures

Crater count equilibrium occurs when new craters form at the same rate that old craters are erased, such that the total number of observable impacts remains constant. Despite substantial efforts to understand this process, there remain many unsolved problems. Here, we propose an analytical model that describes how a heavily cratered surface reaches a state of crater count equilibrium. The proposed model formulates three physical processes contributing to crater count equilibrium: cookie-cutting (simple, geometric overlap), ejecta-blanketing, and sandblasting (diffusive erosion). These three processes are modeled using a degradation parameter that describes the efficiency for a new crater to erase old craters. The flexibility of our newly developed model allows us to represent the processes that underlie crater count equilibrium problems. The results show that when the slope of the production function is steeper than that of the equilibrium state, the power law of the equilibrium slope is independent of that of the production function slope. We apply our model to the cratering conditions in the Sinus Medii region and at the Apollo 15 landing site on the Moon and demonstrate that a consistent degradation parameterization can successfully be determined based on the empirical results of these regions. Further developments of this model will enable us to better understand the surface evolution of airless bodies due to impact bombardment., Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Icarus

Previously proposed mechanisms have difficulty explaining the disruption of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) as it approached the Sun. We describe a novel cometary disruption mechanism whereby comet nuclei fragment and disperse through dynamic sublimation pressure, which induces differential stresses within the interior of the nucleus. When these differential stresses exceed its material strength, the nucleus breaks into fragments. We model the sublimation process thermodynamically and propose that it is responsible for the disruption of Comet ISON. We estimate the bulk unconfined crushing strength of Comet ISON's nucleus and the resulting fragments to be 0.5 Pa and 1-9 Pa respectively, assuming typical Jupiter Family Comet (JFC) albedos. However, if Comet ISON has an albedo similar to Pluto, this strength estimate drops to 0.2 Pa for the intact nucleus and 0.6-4 Pa for its fragments. Regardless of assumed albedo, these are similar to previous strength estimates of JFCs. This suggests that, if Comet ISON is representative of dynamically new comets, then low bulk strength is a primordial property of some comet nuclei, and not due to thermal processing during migration into the Jupiter Family., Comment: 37 pages, 4 figures

The asteroid belt is the leftover of the original planetesimal population in the inner solar system. However, currently the asteroids have orbits with all possible values of eccentricities and inclinations compatible with long-term dynamical stability, whereas the initial planetesimal orbits should have been quasi-circular and almost co-planar. The total mass in the asteroid population is a small fraction of that existing primordially. Also, asteroids with different chemical/mineralogical properties are not ranked in an orderly manner with mean heliocentric distance as one could expect from the existence of a radial gradient of the temperature in the proto-planetary disk, but they are partially mixed. These properties show that the asteroid belt has been severely sculpted by one or a series of processes during its lifetime. This paper reviews the processes that have been proposed so far, discussing the properties that they explain and the problems that they are confronted with. Emphasis is paid to the interplay between the dynamical and the collisional evolution of the asteroid population, which allows the use of the size distribution to constrain the dynamical models. We divide the asteroid belt evolution into three phases. The first phase started during the lifetime of the gaseous proto-planetary disk, when the giant planets formed and presumably experienced large-scale migrations, and continued after the removal of the gas, during the build-up of the terrestrial planets. The second phase occurred after the removal of the gaseous proto-planetary disk and it became particularly lively for the asteroid belt when the giant planets suddenly changed their orbits, as a result of a mutual dynamical instability and the interaction with the trans-Neptunian planetesimal disk. The third phase covers the aftermath of the giant planet instability, until today., Comment: Accepted for publication in Asteroid IV

It has been hypothesized that the impactors that created the majority of the observable craters on the ancient lunar highlands were derived from the main asteroid belt in such a way that preserved their size-frequency distribution. A more limited version of this hypothesis, dubbed the E-belt hypothesis, postulates that a destabilized contiguous inner extension of the main asteroid belt produced a bombardment limited to those craters younger than Nectaris basin. We investigate these hypotheses with a Monte Carlo code called the Cratered Terrain Evolution Model (CTEM). We find that matching the observed number of lunar highlands craters with Dc~100 km requires that the total number of impacting asteroids with Di>10 km be no fewer than 4x10-6 km-2. However, this required mass of impactors has <1% chance of producing only a single basin larger than the ~1200 km Imbrium basin; instead, these simulations are likely to produce more large basins than are observed on the Moon. This difficulty in reproducing the lunar highlands cratering record with a main asteroid belt SFD arises because the main belt is relatively abundant in the objects that produce these "megabasins" that are larger than Imbrium. We also find that the main asteroid belt SFD has <16% chance of producing Nectarian densities of Dc>64 km craters while not producing a crater larger than Imbrium, as required by the E-belt hypothesis. These results suggest that the lunar highlands were unlikely to have been bombarded by a population whose size-frequency distribution resembles that of the currently observed main asteroid belt. We suggest that the population of impactors that cratered the lunar highlands had a somewhat similar size-frequency distribution as the modern main asteroid belt, but had a smaller ratio of objects capable of producing megabasins compared to objects capable of producing ~100 km craters., Comment: 77 pages, 18 figures, Submitted to Icarus: January 10, 2014. Revised: August 21, 2014

We calculate the eccentricity excitation of asteroids produced by the sweeping $\nu_6$ secular resonance during the epoch of planetesimal-driven giant planet migration in the early history of the solar system. We derive analytical expressions for the magnitude of the eccentricity change and its dependence on the sweep rate and on planetary parameters; the $\nu_6$ sweeping leads to either an increase or a decrease of eccentricity depending on an asteroid's initial orbit. Based on the slowest rate of $\nu_6$ sweeping that allows a remnant asteroid belt to survive, we derive a lower limit on Saturn's migration speed of $\sim0.15\AU\My^{-1}$ during the era that the $\nu_6$ resonance swept through the inner asteroid belt (semimajor axis range 2.1--$2.8\AU$). This rate limit is for Saturn's current eccentricity, and scales with the square of Saturn's eccentricity; the limit on Saturn's migration rate could be lower if Saturn's eccentricity were lower during its migration. Applied to an ensemble of fictitious asteroids, our calculations show that a prior single-peaked distribution of asteroid eccentricities would be transformed into a double-peaked distribution due to the sweeping of the $\nu_6$. Examination of the orbital data of main belt asteroids reveals that the proper eccentricities of the known bright ($H \leq10.8$) asteroids may be consistent with a double-peaked distribution. If so, our theoretical analysis then yields two possible solutions for the migration rate of Saturn and for the dynamical states of the pre-migration asteroid belt: a dynamically cold state (single-peaked eccentricity distribution with mean of $\sim0.05$) linked with Saturn's migration speed $\sim 4\AU\My^{-1}$, or a dynamically hot state (single-peaked eccentricity distribution with mean of $\sim0.3$) linked with Saturn's migration speed $\sim 0.8\AU\My^{-1}$., Comment: 32 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ on Mar. 1, 2011

The cumulative effects of weak resonant and secular perturbations by the major planets produce chaotic behavior of asteroids on long timescales. Dynamical chaos is the dominant loss mechanism for asteroids with diameters D > 10 km in the current asteroid belt. In a numerical analysis of the long term evolution of test particles in the main asteroid belt region, we find that the dynamical loss history of test particles from this region is well described with a logarithmic decay law. In our simulations the loss rate function that is established at t = 1 My persists with little deviation to at least t = 4 Gy. Our study indicates that the asteroid belt region has experienced a significant amount of depletion due to this dynamical erosion - having lost as much as ~50% of the large asteroids - since 1 My after the establishment of the current dynamical structure of the asteroid belt. Because the dynamical depletion of asteroids from the main belt is approximately logarithmic, an equal amount of depletion occurred in the time interval 10-200 My as in 0.2-4 Gy, roughly ~30% of the current number of large asteroids in the main belt over each interval. We find that asteroids escaping from the main belt due to dynamical chaos have an Earth impact probability of ~0.3%. Our model suggests that the rate of impacts from large asteroids has declined by a factor of 3 over the last 3 Gy, and that the present-day impact flux of D > 10 km objects on the terrestrial planets is roughly an order of magnitude less than estimates currently in use in crater chronologies and impact hazard risk assessments., Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Icarus

The main asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, but the region is not uniformly filled with asteroids. There are gaps, known as the Kirkwood gaps, in the asteroid distribution in distinct locations that are associated with orbital resonances with the giant planets; asteroids placed in these locations follow chaotic orbits and escape from the asteroid belt. Here we show that the observed distribution of main belt asteroids does not fill uniformly even those regions that are dynamically stable over the age of the solar system. We find a pattern of excess depletion of asteroids, particularly just outward of the Kirkwood Gaps associated with the 5:2, the 7:3, and the 2:1 jovian resonances. These features are not accounted for by planetary perturbations in the current structure of the solar system, but are consistent with dynamical ejection of asteroids by the sweeping of gravitational resonances during the migration of Jupiter and Saturn ~4 gigayears ago., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, includes supplementary material; appeared in Nature (26 Feb 2009)

The extrasolar system OGLE-2006-BLG-109L is the first multiple-planet system to be discovered by gravitational microlensing (Gaudi et al., 2008); the two large planets that have been detected have mass ratios, semimajor axis ratios, and equilibrium temperatures that are similar to those of Jupiter and Saturn; the mass of the host star is only 0.5 M_sun, and the system is more compact than our own Solar system. We find that in the habitable zone of the host star, the two detected planets resonantly excite large orbital eccentricities on a putative earth-mass planet, driving such a planet out of the habitable zone. We show that an additional inner planet of ~>0.3M_earth at <~0.1 AU would suppress the eccentricity perturbation and greatly improve the prospects for habitability of the system. Thus, the planetary architecture of a potentially habitable OGLE-2006-BLG-109L planetary system -- with two ``terrestrial'' planets and two jovian planets -- could bear very close resemblance to our own Solar system., Comment: 11 pages including 4 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ-Letters

A moderately massive early Sun has been proposed to resolve the so-called faint early Sun paradox. We calculate the time-evolution of the solar mass that would be required by this hypothesis, using a simple parametrized energy-balance model for Earth's climate. Our calculations show that the solar mass loss rate would need to have been 2-3 orders of magnitude higher than present for a time on the order of ~2 Gy. Such a mass loss history is significantly at variance (both in timescale and in the magnitude of the mass loss rates) with that inferred from astronomical observations of mass loss in younger solar analogues. While suggestive, the astronomical data cannot completely rule out the possibility that the Sun had the required mass loss history; therefore, we also examine the effects of the hypothetical historical solar mass loss on orbital dynamics in the solar system, with a view to identifying additional tests of the hypothesis. Planetary and satellite orbits provide a few tests, but these are weak or non-unique., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; submitted to ApJ on Dec. 8, 2006

Motivating questions: 1. How does the topography of airless bodies evolve? 2. What is the relative rate on the Moon and Mercury? 3. Can we constrain the age of features and units from their topography?

The "Mars Tumbleweed," a rover concept that would utilize surface winds for mobility, is being examined as a low cost complement to the current Mars exploration efforts. Tumbleweeds carrying microinstruments would be driven across the Martian landscape by wind, searching for areas of scientific interest. These rovers, relatively simple, inexpensive, and deployed in large numbers to maximize coverage of the Martian surface, would provide a broad scouting capability to identify specific sites for exploration by more complex rover and lander missions.