Almahata Sitta (AhS) is the first meteorite to originate from an asteroid (2008 TC3) that had been studied in space before it hit Earth [1,2]. It is also unique because the fallen fragments comprise a variety of types: approximately 69% ureilites (achondrites) and 31% chondrites [3]. Two models have been proposed for the origin 2008 TC3: 1) an accr...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal
The late stages of terrestrial planet formation are dominated by giant impacts that collectively influence the growth, composition, and habitability of any planets that form. Hitherto, numerical models designed to explore these late stage collisions have been limited by assuming that all collisions lead to perfect accretion, and many of these studi...
Published in arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.06140
We present results of the final Kepler Data Processing Pipeline search for transiting planet signals in the full 17-quarter primary mission dataset. The search includes a total of 198,709 stellar targets of which 112,046 were observed in all 17 quarters and 86,663 in fewer than 17 quarters. We report on 17,230 targets for which at least one transit...
Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets
Carbonates are key minerals for understanding ancient Martian environments because they are indicators of potentially habitable, neutral-to-alkaline water and may be an important reservoir for paleoatmospheric CO 2. Previous remote sensing studies have identified mostly Mg-rich carbonates, both in Martian dust and in a Late Noachian rock unit circu...
Published in Space Science Reviews
Over the past several decades, orbital observations of lofted dust have revealed the importance of mineral aerosols as a climate forcing mechanism on both Earth and Mars. Increasingly detailed and diverse data sets have provided an ever-improving understanding of dust sources, transport pathways, and sinks on both planets, but the role of dust in m...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal
The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a leading scientific society promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all. It has a worldwide membership of around 50 000 comprising physicists from all sectors, as well as those with an interest in physics. It works to advance physics research, application and education; and engages wi...
Given that low-mass stars have intrinsically low luminosities at optical wavelengths and a propensity for stellar activity, it is advantageous for radial velocity (RV) surveys of these objects to use near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. In this work we describe and test a novel RV extraction pipeline dedicated to retrieving RVs from low mass stars usin...
Published in The Astrophysical Journal
We infer dynamical masses in eight multiplanet systems using transit times measured from Kepler s complete data? set, including short-cadence data where available. Of the 18? dynamical masses that we infer, 10? pass multiple tests for robustness. These are in systems? Kepler-26 (KOI-250), Kepler-29 (KOI-738), Kepler-60 (KOI-2086), Kepler-105 (KOI-1...
Published in Science
In July 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft flew through the Pluto system at high speed, humanity's first close look at this enigmatic system on the outskirts of our solar system. In a series of papers, the New Horizons team present their analysis of the encounter data downloaded so far: Moore et al. present the complex surface features and geology o...
Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Results of the time variability monitoring of the two classical T Tauri stars, RU Lup and IM Lup, are presented. Three photometric data sets were utilized:(1) simultaneous (same field) MOST satellite observations over four weeks in each of the years 2012 and 2013,(2) multicolour observations at the South African Astronomical Observatory in April– M...
