Audrey Thirouin and Scott S. Sheppard 2018 AJ 155 248
Observations of 12 Plutinos over two separated years with the 4.3 m Lowell’s Discovery Channel Telescope reveal large-amplitude variation in three of their light curves, suggesting these Plutinos are contact binaries.
Wei Zhu et al 2018 ApJ 860 101
New modeling suggests that the fraction of Sun-like stars with Kepler-like planets — planets with radii Rp > R⊕ and orbital periods P < 400 days — is only ~30%, not 50% as previously indicated.
Christopher N. A. Willmer 2018 ApJS 236 47
Recent estimates are presented for the absolute magnitude of the Sun — a value that must be precisely known since the properties of other astronomical objects are described in relation to solar values.
J. Zhong et al 2018 ApJL 860 L20
First observations are reported of a rapidly evolving magnetic reconnection process in Mercury’s magnetotail by the MESSENGER spacecraft, showing the processes that may be responsible for Mercury’s dynamic magnetosphere.
David E. Trilling et al 2018 AJ 155 243
The upcoming (2022) Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) wil confidently detect or rule out the existence of Planet X — a hypothesized planetary-mass object in the far outer solar system — in 61% of the entire sky.
N. Nicole Sanchez et al 2018 ApJ 860 20
High-resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of Milky Way-type galaxies imply that galaxy mergers play an important role in feeding the supermassive black hole in MW-type galaxies with merger-rich histories.