Trans-Neptunian and exosolar satellites and dust: dynamics and surface effects

Solar system orbital dynamics can offer unique challenges. Impacts of interplanetary dust particles can significantly alter the surfaces of icy satellites and minor planets. Impact heating from these particles can anneal away radiation damage to the crystalline structure of surface water ice. This effect is enhanced by gravitational focusing for giant planet satellites. In addition, impacts of interplanetary dust particles on the small satellites of the Pluto system can eject into the system significant amounts of secondary intra-satellite dust. This dust is primarily swept up by Pluto and Charon, and could explain the observed albedo features on Pluto's surface. In addition to Pluto, a large fraction of trans-neptunian objects (TNOs) are binary or multiple systems. The mutual orbits of these TNO binaries can range from very wide (periods of several years) to near-contact systems (less than a day period). No single formation mechanism can explain this distribution. However, if the systems generally formed wide, a combination of solar and body tides (commonly called Kozai Cycles-Tidal Friction, KCTF) can cause most systems to tighten sufficiently to explain the observed distributions. This KCTF process can also be used to describe the orbital evolution of a terrestrial-class exoplanet after being captured as a satellite of a habitable-zone giant exoplanet. The resulting exomoon would be both potentially habitable and potenially detectable in the full Kepler data set.