ALT The thermodynamics of protoplanetary disks, governed by a complex interplay between gas, dust, and radiation, exerts a strong influence on their morphology and dynamics at both large and small scales. Historically, hydrodynamical simulations have treated thermodynamics with approximate prescriptions, such as local isothermality, parametrized β-cooling, and radiation hydrodynamics with gas-dust thermal equilibrium. However, a more comprehensive and self-consistent approach would more accurately reproduce the wealth of features found in observations, which in modern times have reached unprecedented spectral, angular, and vertical resolution. With this motivation, we have devised a radiation-hydrodynamics scheme for the PLUTO code with energy exchange (via absorption, emission, and collisions) for gas, radiation, and multiple species of dust. Dust-gas dynamics are handled by treating each dust species as a pressureless, diffusive fluid, ensuring that our scheme can represent changes in di

ALT The β Pictoris debris disk is a unique system where mid-infrared coronagraphic imaging with JWST/MIRI revealed a new spatially resolved substructure known as the Cat's Tail. We present deep HST/STIS coronagraphic imaging of β Pic in scattered light, combining six epochs of observations between 2012 and 2025, in search of the scattered light component of the Cat's Tail. We detect the disk out to a projected separation of 500 au for the first time with HST/STIS, achieving SNR > 100 across much of the midplane between 50 and 200 au. We report the detection of the visible/near-infrared scattered light component of the Cat's Tail substructure. We find through injection-recovery analysis that the scattered light component of the Cat's Tail has a total flux of 0.1-0.4% of the MIRI F1550C flux. Using the measured STIS-to-MIRI flux ratio, we model the Cat's Tail grain properties and find that the grains are highly porous and almost entirely composed of organic refractory material, which is in a

ALT The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will enable large-scale characterization of minor bodies through high-cadence, multi-band photometry. Early Science Validation (SV) observations from 2025-2026 provide one of the first extensive datasets for Solar System studies, but typically with sparser and more heterogeneous coverage than the Rubin First Look data, where hundreds of observations were available for well-characterized objects. In this work, we build on the methodology developed for the Rubin First Look data to extract asteroid rotation periods, amplitudes, colors, and taxonomic classifications from early Rubin SV data using multi-band (griz) photometry. Rotation periods are determined through a combination of high-order Fourier light-curve fitting and multi-band Lomb-Scargle analysis. A unified light-curve model is then used to derive rotation-corrected colors, which are converted into taxonomic classes using calibrated color indices and spectral slopes. We validate the method on objects

ALT Context: Hot exozodiacal dust has been detected around approximately 20% of nearby main-sequence stars, indicating that it is a common feature of extrasolar planetary systems. However, its spatial distribution and grain properties remain poorly understood. Aims: We aim to show that the spatial distribution of hot dust around beta Pictoris, an iconic planetary system with two known planets and a population of exocomets, can be constrained through a detailed analysis of optical long-baseline interferometry data. Methods: We obtained L-band observations at approximately 3.5 microns of beta Pictoris with MATISSE at the VLTI. We developed a method to assess correlations in the visibility measurements by estimating the full data covariance matrix, and modeled the circumstellar emission with geometric brightness distributions. Results: We detect circumstellar emission around beta Pictoris consistent with hot exozodiacal dust. Modeling the emission with and without accounting for data correlat

ALT The radial velocity (RV) technique enabled the discovery of the first exoplanets orbiting Sun-like stars. Since then, improvements in precision and sensitivity have enabled the detection of smaller planets, bringing us closer to the goal of discovering Earth analogs in the coming years. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the radial velocity method. We begin with a detailed description of the technique, including how precise radial velocities are measured and what limitations must be addressed to achieve reliable detection of small signals. We examine the unique challenges associated with the detection of circumbinary planets and outline the developments that have, for the first time, made their detection feasible using the radial velocity method. With over 2,000 planets detected to date, the radial velocity method remains one of the most reliable techniques, offering valuable insights into the demographics of exoplanets, especially at long orbital distances. As an example of it

ALT Determining isotopic ratios on the surfaces of extraterrestrial objects can provide insight into their formation conditions and evolution. Recently, remote-sensing detections of the 4.14 μm HDO absorption band have enabled astronomers to estimate the D/H ratio on several icy objects in the outer solar system. Here, we quantify how ice phase and radiation processing affect the 4.14 μm absorption band. While the band is visible in H2O-ice samples with a crystalline component, we cannot detect it in amorphous H2O-ice. Furthermore, we find that radiation processing, using 10 keV electrons as a proxy, quickly makes this absorption feature undetectable at a rate consistent with the amorphization of an initially crystalline sample. Interestingly, we also find that recrystallizing the irradiated sample causes this band to reappear nearly to its original band depth. For the Saturnian satellite Mimas, we estimate that the HDO feature will decrease by a factor of two within 1 x 10⁴ yrs at typical

ALT We test whether collisions involving Titan can eject enough water-rich material onto sufficiently distant Saturn-bound orbits to form Iapetus, while also accounting for Titan's orbital eccentricity. Three-dimensional impact calculations and post-impact trajectories examine initially Saturn-unbound and bound impactors. In the oblique unbound case with a differentiated impactor roughly a tenth the mass of Titan at a speed of 10 km s⁻¹, outgoing predominantly icy material from a selected population totaling about 3.5 times Iapetus's mass remains Saturn-bound for days after impact. We track an icy sample whose orbital apoapsis extends beyond Iapetus's distance. After impact, Titan's eccentricity increases to near 0.13, while the impactor's rocky core escapes Saturn. In another case, a bound companion one quarter Titan's mass collides at 45° and about 3.7 km s⁻¹, ejecting 0.60 Iapetus masses of ice. The rocky impactor core initially skips past Titan; an orbital continuation reaches return c

ALT The Hildas are objects trapped in 3:2 mean-motion resonance (MMR) with Jupiter, and are a fascinating window into the Solar system's formation and evolution. We present the results of detailed dynamical integrations of 2,699 numbered asteroids in the Hilda region, following 243 clones of each Hilda for 1 Gyr under the influence of the giant planets and the Sun; 54.7% of our sample exhibit extreme dynamical stability, with all clones of 1,475 Hildas remaining trapped in the 3:2 MMR for the full 1 Gyr of our integrations. A further 408 Hildas (15.1% of the sample) see more than 50% of their clones surviving within the MMR at the end of the simulations. Of the remaining 30.2% of the population, 327 objects (12.1%) lose 50% of their clones at some point between the 100 Myr and 1 Gyr point, leading to dynamical half-lives measured in hundreds of millions of years – a result compatible with those objects being members of a once larger population of Hildas trapped since the Solar system's you

ALT Recently, a population of free-floating planets has been discovered in the Galaxy. This paper examines the influence of the planets trapped within a protostellar hydrogen clouds on the processes of gravitational instability in the gas. A sufficiently massive planet can become an alternative dynamic center for the contracting cloud. This occurs due to rapid mass growth from accretion onto the planet within the cloud. Owing to residual velocity and density gradients in the cloud, the planet that triggers star formation is likely to end up in a distant orbit around the newborn star. Some second- and subsequent-generation stars in the Galaxy may have formed via this mechanism.

ALT The Vertical Shear Instability (VSI) is known to create turbulence and strong vertical mixing in protoplanetary disks if thermal relaxation is sufficiently fast. In simulations where this condition is met, VSI can loft dust particles to large altitudes, creating a vertically extended appearance in mock millimeter-wavelength observations, which is inconsistent with the morphology of the majority of observed class II disks. We present simulations of protoplanetary disks with VSI that are consistent with the observed thin-disk geometries, while maintaining the commonly observed bowl-shaped morphology in scattered light images at micrometer wavelength. We show that this outcome arises naturally when the effects of dust coagulation, sedimentation, and dust-gas thermal accommodation are taken into account. Sedimentation-driven coagulation removes large amounts of dust from the disk atmosphere, in the process slowing down the dust-driven cooling of the gas. At the same time, a dense midplane

ALT The optical properties (scattering phase function SPF; degree of linear polarization DoLP; reflectance) of the dust particles orbiting in debris disks can be retrieved through scattered light imaging and are linked to the physicochemical properties of the dust (size, shape, composition...). Among debris disks, the bright, narrow disk surrounding HR 4796A presents several peculiarities, in particular unusually high DoLP values at small scattering angles. We aim at improving the constraints on the properties of the dust particles orbiting in HR 4796. We use new observational data (SPHERE/ZIMPOL and IRDIS) in scattered light of HR 4796, for lambda = 0.63 um; 0.79 um and 1.25 um. We modeled the disk at each of these wavelengths and found geometric parameters consistent with previous results. We obtained the parametrized SPF and DoLP over the whole range of scattering angles (13 degrees to 167 degrees) and extracted the DoLP and spectral reflectance at 90 degrees (without any parametrizatio

ALT We present photometric, spectroscopic, and polarimetric observations of (163693) Atira collected on the night of 05 March 2024. A dual-band lightcurve acquired in the V and R_C filters using the Metsähovi Observatory (L08) in Kirkkonummi, Finland spans nearly 8 hours. From these measurements we estimate a V-R_C = 0.43 +/- 0.07 mag. A visible spectrum and linear polarisation measurement were obtained with the Nordic Optical Telescope in La Palma, Spain. We employ a semi-empirical model to recover the spectral flux that was lost due to a mis-aligned spectroscopic slit. The corrected model reflectance spectrum indicates a primitive Cgh taxonomic type with a distinct absorption feature from 0.60 to 0.85 um with a depth of 7.4 %. Direct comparison with laboratory spectra of meteorites indicates close matches with CM carbonaceous chondrites. We detect a large degree of linear polarisation at a phase angle of 83 degrees which is consistent with (3200) Phaethon and (155140) 2005 UD, but lower

ALT Over the past two decades, increasingly precise observations have revealed that exoplanet atmospheres are chemically diverse and often far from equilibrium, with processes such as vertical mixing, photochemistry, and atmospheric circulation producing significant departures from thermochemical expectations. As large surveys across a wide range of planets begin to uncover population-level chemical trends, a coherent interpretation of these patterns remains elusive, particularly for gas giants and Neptune-like planets where disequilibrium processes likely dominate. The ESA Ariel mission will provide the first homogeneous, statistically significant atmospheric dataset for nearly a thousand exoplanets, offering an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the origins of chemical diversity across planetary populations. This white paper highlights central scientific questions for understanding atmospheric chemistry and recognized as priorities for the community. These questions span the mechan

ALT The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) embarked in 2023 on a 8-year interplanetary journey to Jupiter and its icy moons. The Submillimetre Wave Instrument (SWI) is one of the ten science instruments aboard the spacecraft. SWI is a sophisticated and first-of-its-kind payload visiting the outer solar system, featuring dual-band tunable receivers, two independent pointing mechanisms, and spectrometers capable of high resolution (up to a resolving power of 10⁷). It is designed to support the diverse science objectives of the Juice mission targeting Jupiter's middle atmosphere, icy-moon's exospheres as well as near sub-surface thermophysical properties. For this purpose the Juice mission adopts a complex trajectory tour within the Jovian system, which further necessitates a sophisticated, mission-driven operations concept for SWI. This presents significant planning, operations and commanding challenges which are described in this paper in the context of the Lunar and Earth Gravity Assist (L

ALT Cryovolcanism is a fundamental geodynamical process that has been observed on several icy moons. Europa stands out as a primary target for investigating potential cryovolcanic activity and its role in shaping icy moon surfaces. This work characterizes the physical state of ascending cryomagma and evaluates the relevance of terrestrial analogues to explain Europa's surface features. After investigating cryomagma depressurization, we developed CryoPy, a numerical model based on Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) for computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer. We simulated flow propagation and surface cooling using this model. Our simulations show that snow is a relevant physical analogue for cryolava, as the resulting flows closely match the smooth plains observed by Galileo in both extent and morphology. Additionally, we established the temporal thermal signatures of these events. Such active cryovolcanic events are within the detection limits of, primarily, the E-THEMIS infrared

ALT At unmagnetized planetary bodies, the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability at the solar-wind boundary is a key driver of atmospheric escape, fundamentally shaping long-term climate evolution. This shear-driven plasma mixing is theoretically predicted to be asymmetric, strongly favoring the hemisphere where the solar-wind electric field points toward the planet (-E hemisphere). Here we report the observation of a coherent train of fully developed KH vortices in the traditionally unfavorable +E hemisphere of Mars, using in-situ MAVEN measurements. Contemporaneous upstream constraints from Tianwen-1 confirm a steady interplanetary magnetic field, indicating sustained shear-driven growth rather than a transient boundary response. We find that these vortices developed within an expanded, weak-field boundary layer downstream of strong southern crustal magnetic anomalies. Our analysis suggests that regional boundary structuring can override the large-scale hemispheric preference to facilitate lo

ALT The sub-kilometer Super-Fast Rotator and Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (436724) 2011 UW158 exhibits an extreme dynamical environment driven by its rotational period of 0.61072 h. Using a 3-D polyhedral shape model, we investigate the surface dynamic stability under both cohesionless and cohesion-modified conditions, while also addressing families of periodic orbits, station-keeping maneuvers, and energy states in this rapidly rotating, irregular-body regime. Our results show that, with the inclusion of cohesion, the effective slopes decrease to 45°, permitting the retention of boulders with maximum sizes of 50 m near the equatorial region. The dominance of the centrifugal term in the effective potential shifts the exterior equilibrium points inward, creating highly unstable geopotential regions where loose regolith is susceptible to ejection, preventing long-term surface retention outside the polar regions. To quantify this instability, we introduce the equivalent instability speed (v

ALT The Kepler space telescope was a successful mission that used the transit method. Multi-planetary systems are interesting because they are dynamically rich due to the planets' interactions. Kepler's mission was the first to find a system with four planets all in resonance, that is Kepler-223. The Kepler-223 system is of unique dynamical interest as the first exoplanetary system confirmed to host four sub-Neptune planets in a precise 3:4:6:8 resonant chain. Previous dynamical studies have struggled to fully recover the long-term phase protection mechanisms, often finding that higher-order resonant angles circulate rather than librate. In this work, we re-examine the dynamical state of Kepler-223 by performing high-resolution N-body integrations and constructing detailed stability maps in the (a,e) phase space, we demonstrate that the system is locked in a deeper resonant state than previously thought. Crucially, we find that all resonant arguments, exhibit robust libration over secular

ALT We present evidence that the streaming instability (SI) can form planetesimals from millimeter grains inside axisymmetric pressure bumps, provided the bump is not too strongly reinforced. We conducted three-dimensional local shearing-box simulations of millimeter grains in a Gaussian pressure bump of amplitude A = 0.6, at a resolution of 160/H. We varied only the Newtonian reinforcement timescale t_reinf, the timescale on which the imposed bump is restored against particle back-reaction. Our reference run T1 uses t_reinf = 1 Ω⁻¹. Particles pile up in a narrow axisymmetric band at the minimum-headwind point, cross the Roche density, and collapse through direct gravitational instability (GI). In our weakly reinforced run T100 with t_reinf = 100 Ω⁻¹, the outcome is different. Particles drift through the bump roughly three times more slowly, and dense SI-like filaments develop across a wide radial region well before the Roche density is reached. These results are consistent with a residenc

ALT It is unclear if host star metallicities differ between systems with one detected transiting planet ("singles") or multiple detected transiting planets ("multis") around FGK dwarfs. Here, we find strong evidence that they do for M dwarfs. We use a homogeneous sample of FGK and M dwarf chemical abundances to demonstrate that M dwarf multis are significantly more metal-poor than singles (p = 0.00079), even when we only consider small (<4 R⊕) planets (p = 0.0013). This result emerges at the late-K to M dwarf transition. We observe that M dwarf multis become more metal-poor as a function of increasing planet multiplicity. Additionally, planets in singles have significantly higher eccentricities and shorter orbital periods compared to planets in multis. We interpret these findings as evidence that M dwarf singles lead relatively active dynamical lives, and the different planetary architectures of singles and multis arise from distinct dynamics influenced by metallicity. This may not occur i