arXiv subjects

Vincenzo Orofino

Publications and source records attributed to Vincenzo Orofino.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Simulation of the spin evolution of some selected exoplanets and inferences on their climate

In this work, using the simulator VPLanet, we analyze the spin evolution of some selected exoplanets due to the tidal interaction with their host star. For a rocky planet, two spin conditions are possible, the trapped rotation and the fast rotation, referring to the cases of achieved and non achieved tidal trapping, respectively. We focus on planets whose spin condition is not obvious, because no study is needed for planets which are undoubtedly fast rotators or undoubtedly trapped rotators; moreover, we consider only exoplanets that are interesting from an astrobiological perspective. The current spin conditions of the considered planets are hypothesized, taking into account the age of the host star. Inferences regarding planetary climate and habitability, which is defined by the possibility of stably sustaining the liquid water on the surface, are also discussed. Results of this work show that Kepler62f, Kepler1126c and Kepler1544b are expected to be fast rotators regardless of the orbital eccentricity; the spin condition of Kepler186f, Kepler62e, and Kepler442b cannot be determined without constraints on the eccentricity, which are currently unavailable; Kepler440b is expected to be tidally trapped.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2020

Taurid Complex Smoking Gun: Detection of Cometary Activity

Using the Secular Light Curve (SLC) formalism (Ferrín, 2010), we have catalogued 88 probable members of the Taurid Complex (TC). 51 of them have useful SLCs and 34 of these (67%) exhibit cometary activity. This high percentage of active asteroids gives support to the hypothesis of a catastrophe that took place during the Upper Paleolithic (Clube and Napier, 1984), when a large short-period comet, arriving in the inner Solar System from the Kuiper Belt, experienced, starting from 20 thousand years ago, a series of fragmentations that produced the present 2P/Encke comet, together with a large number of other members of the TC. The fragmentation of the progenitor body was facilitated by its heterogeneous structure (very similar to a rubble pile) and this also explains the current coexistence in the complex of fragments of different composition and origin. We have found that (2212) Hephaistos and 169P/NEAT are active and members of the TC with their own sub-group. Other components of the complex are groups of meteoroids, that often give rise to meteor showers when they enter the terrestrial atmosphere, and very probably also the two small asteroids that in 1908 and 2013 exploded in the terrestrial atmosphere over Tunguska and Chelyabinsk, respectively. What we see today of the TC are the remnants of a very varied and numerous complex of objects, characterized by an intense past of collisions with the Earth which may continue to represent a danger for our planet.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2014

A quantitative astronomical analysis of the Orion Correlation Theory

The link between the three major Giza pyramids and the stars of the Orion Belt has been since long time the subject of various qualitative speculations. In this framework an important role is played by a controversial theory, the so-called "Orion Correlation Theory" (OCT), according to which a perfect coincidence would exist between the mutual positions of the three stars of the Orion Belt and those of the main Giza pyramids. In the present paper the OCT has been subjected to some quantitative astronomical and astrophysical verifications, in order to assess its compatibility with the results of both naked-eye astrometry and photometry. In particular, a linear correlation is found between the height of such monuments and the present brightness of the Orion Belt stars. According to these analyses it is possible to conclude that the OCT is not incompatible with what expected for the stars of the Orion Belt on the basis of naked-eye astrometry and photometry, as well as of the stellar evolution theory.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2011

Stato evolutivo delle stelle della Cintura di Orione ed implicazioni archeoastronomiche

In the present work it is evaluated the evolutionary state of the Orion Belt stars, an asterism very important for the ancient Egyptians, finding that, when the pyramids were built, the brightness of the three stars of the Belt was practically the same as today. This not trivial result has important implications in the framework of the so-called Orion Correlation Theory, a controversial theory proposed by Bauval and Gilbert (1994), according to which a perfect coincidence would exist between the disposition of the three stars of the Orion Belt and that of the main Giza pyramids, so that the latter would represent the monumental reproduction on the ground of that important asterism. ---- Nel presente lavoro viene determinato lo stato evolutivo delle stelle della Cintura di Orione, ricavando che, all'epoca della costruzione delle piramidi, la luminosita' delle tre stelle della Cintura era di fatto uguale a quella odierna. Tale non banale risultato riveste una importanza fondamentale nell'ambito della verifica della controversa Teoria della Correlazione di Orione proposta da Bauval e Gilbert nel 1994, secondo la quale esisterebbe una perfetta coincidenza tra la disposizione delle tre stelle della Cintura e quella delle tre piramidi nella piana di Giza.

physics.hist-ph↗