arXiv subjects

Mario Sucerquia

Publications and source records attributed to Mario Sucerquia.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

The effect of close-in giant planets' evolution on tidal-induced migration of exomoons

Hypothetical exomoons around close-in giant planets may migrate inwards and/or outwards in virtue of the interplay of the star, planet and moon tidal interactions. These processes could be responsible for the disruption of lunar systems, the collision of moons with planets or could provide a mechanism for the formation of exorings. Several models have been developed to determine the fate of exomoons when subject to the tidal effects of their host planet. None of them have taken into account the key role that planetary evolution could play in this process. In this paper we put together numerical models of exomoon tidal-induced orbital evolution, results of planetary evolution and interior structure models, to study the final fate of exomoons around evolving close-in gas giants. We have found that planetary evolution significantly affects not only the time-scale of exomoon migration but also its final fate. Thus, if any change in planetary radius, internal mass distribution and rotation occurs in time-scales lower or comparable to orbital evolution, exomoon may only migrate outwards and prevent tidal disruption or a collision with the planet. If exomoons are discovered in the future around close-in giant planets, our results may contribute to constraint planetary evolution and internal structure models.

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arXiv2019

Anomalous light curves of young tilted exorings

Despite the success of discovering transiting exoplanets, several recently observed objects (e.g. KIC-8462852, J1407 and PDS-110) exhibit unconventional transit signals, whose appropriate interpretation in terms of a spherical single body has been challenging, if not impossible. In the aforementioned examples the presence of a ring-like structure has been proposed for explaining the unusual data. Thus, in this paper we delve into the dynamics of a tilted exoring disturbed by a third close companion, and the role that the Lidov-Kozai mechanism may have to explain irregular and anomalous transit signals of ringed planets, as well as the ring's early stages. To that end, we performed numerical simulations and semi-analytical calculations to assess the ring's dynamical and morphological properties, and their related transit observables. We found that tilted ringed structures undergo short-term changes in shape and orientation that are manifested as strong variations of transit depth and contact times, even between consecutive eclipses. Any detected anomaly in transit characteristics may lead to a miscalculation of the system's properties (planetary radius, semi-major axis, stellar density and others). Moreover, oscillating ring-like structures may account for the strangeness of some light-curve features in already known and future discovered exoplanets.

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arXiv2019

Can we predict the impact conditions of metre-sized meteoroids?

Every year, a few metre-sized meteoroids impact the atmosphere of the Earth. Most (if not all) of them are undetectable before the impact. Therefore, predicting where and how they will fall seems to be an impossible task. In this letter we show compelling evidence that we can constrain in advance, the dynamical and geometrical conditions of an impact. For this purpose, we analyse the well-documented case of the Chelyabinsk (Russia) impact and the more recent and smaller Viñales (Cuba) event, whose conditions we estimate and provide here. After using the {\em Gravitational Ray Tracing} algorithm (GRT) to "predict" the impact conditions of the aforementioned events, we find that the speed, incoming direction and (marginally) the orbital elements of the corresponding meteoroids could be constrained in advance, starting only on one hand, with the geographical location and time of the impact, and on the other hand, with the distribution in configuration space of Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Any improvement in our capability to predict or at least to constrain impact properties of medium-sized and large meteoroids, will help us to be better prepared for its potentially damaging effects.

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arXiv2018

A general method for assessing the origin of interstellar small bodies: the case of 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua)

With the advent of more and deeper sky surveys, the discovery of interstellar small objects entering into the Solar System has been finally possible. In October 19, 2017, using observations of the Pan-STARRS survey, a fast moving object, now officially named 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua), was discovered in a heliocentric unbound trajectory suggesting an interstellar origin. Assessing the provenance of interstellar small objects is key for understanding their distribution, spatial density and the processes responsible for their ejection from planetary systems. However, their peculiar trajectories place a limit on the number of observations available to determine a precise orbit. As a result, when its position is propagated $\sim 10^5-10^6$ years backward in time, small errors in orbital elements become large uncertainties in position in the interstellar space. In this paper we present a general method for assigning probabilities to nearby stars of being the parent system of an observed interstellar object. We describe the method in detail and apply it for assessing the origin of 'Oumuamua. A preliminary list of potential progenitors and their corresponding probabilities is provided. In the future, when further information about the object and/or the nearby stars be refined, the probabilities computed with our method can be updated. We provide all the data and codes we developed for this purpose in the form of an open source {\tt C/C++/Python package}, {\bf\tt iWander} which is publicly available at http://github.com/seap-udea/iWander.

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arXiv2018

Towards a theoretical determination of the geographical probability distribution of meteoroid impacts on Earth

Tunguska and Chelyabinsk impact events occurred inside a geographical area of only 3.4\% of the Earth's surface. Although two events hardly constitute a statistically significant demonstration of a geographical pattern of impacts, their spatial coincidence is at least tantalizing. To understand if this concurrence reflects an underlying geographical and/or temporal pattern, we must aim at predicting the spatio-temporal distribution of meteoroid impacts on Earth. For this purpose we designed, implemented and tested a novel numerical technique, the "Gravitational Ray Tracing" (GRT) designed to compute the relative impact probability (RIP) on the surface of any planet. GRT is inspired by the so-called ray-casting techniques used to render realistic images of complex 3D scenes. In this paper we describe the method and the results of testing it at the time of large impact events. Our findings suggest a non-trivial pattern of impact probabilities at any given time on Earth. Locations at $60-90°$ from the apex are more prone to impacts, especially at midnight. Counterintuitively, sites close to apex direction have the lowest RIP, while in the antapex RIP are slightly larger than average. We present here preliminary maps of RIP at the time of Tunguska and Chelyabinsk events and found no evidence of a spatial or temporal pattern, suggesting that their coincidence was fortuitous. We apply the GRT method to compute theoretical RIP at the location and time of 394 large fireballs. Although the predicted spatio-temporal impact distribution matches marginally the observed events, we successfully predict their impact speed distribution.

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arXiv2015

A novel method for identifying exoplanetary rings

The discovery of rings around extrasolar planets ("exorings") is one of the next breakthroughs in exoplanetary research. Previous studies have explored the feasibility of detecting exorings with present and future photometric sensitivities by seeking anomalous deviations in the residuals of a standard transit light curve fit, at the level of ~100 ppm for Kronian rings. In this work, we explore two much larger observational consequences of exorings: (1) the significant increase in transit depth that may lead to the misclassification of ringed planetary candidates as false-positives and/or the underestimation of planetary density; and (2) the so-called "photo-ring" effect, a new asterodensity profiling effect, revealed by a comparison of the light curve derived stellar density to that measured with independent methods (e.g., asteroseismology). While these methods do not provide an unambiguous detection of exorings, we show that the large amplitude of these effects combined with their relatively simple analytic description, makes them highly suited to large-scale surveys to identify candidate ringed planets worthy of more detailed investigation. Moreover, these methods lend themselves to ensemble analyses seeking to uncover evidence of a population of ringed planets. We describe the method in detail, develop the basic underlying formalism and test it in the parameter space of rings and transit config- uration. We discuss the prospects of using this method for the first systematic search of exoplanetary rings in the Kepler database and provide a basic computational code for implementing it.

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