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The impact flux in the inner Solar System just after its formation is studied by looking at the highly siderophile element abundance of Vesta. Results show that leftover planetesimals from the terrestrial planet region have been the major impactor source, indicative of a skewed mass distribution in the primordial inner Solar System.

Gravitational interactions after the Moon-forming event suggest that the current lunar inclination is the result of collisionless encounters of planetesimals with the early Moon–Earth system.

Ancient lunar basins that formed within about 100 million years after the lunar magma ocean solidified have fully relaxed, owing to the high temperature of the lower crust, and thus escaped detection. This finding explains the discrepancy between the number of basins detected on the Moon (~40) and the number predicted (~300) by an accretion scenario of planet formation.

Observations of the super-massive Neptune-sized transiting planet TOI-1853 b show a mass almost twice that of any other Neptune-sized planet known so far and a bulk density implying that heavy elements dominate its mass.

A planetary origin model that forms exoplanets from a narrow ring of silicate material at a stellocentric distance of 1 au is able to explain the physical properties of super-Earths and reproduce the ‘peas in a pod’ pattern of uniformity within planetary architecture.

Giant planets on wide, eccentric orbits—like the putative Planet Nine—may form from dynamical planetary instabilities when stars are embedded in their natal stellar clusters. Simulations suggest a 1–5% chance of such planets forming in exoplanetary systems and up to 40% in the Solar System.

The calcium-isotope composition of planetary bodies in the inner Solar System correlates with the masses of such objects. This finding could have implications for our understanding of how the Solar System formed.

Lunar rock and zircon ages were reset by a remelting event driven by the Moon’s orbital evolution, reconciling existing discrepancies in estimates for the formation time of the Moon and the crystallization time of its magma ocean.

The main asteroid belt contains a surprising diversity of objects, ranging from primitive ice-rock mixtures to igneous rocks. The standard model used to explain this assumes the violent dynamical evolution of the giant-planet orbits. Here, this evolution is shown to lead to the insertion of primitive trans-Neptunian objects into the outer belt, implying that the observed diversity of the asteroid belt is not a direct reflection of the intrinsic compositional variation of the proto-planetary disk, but rather of dynamical evolution.

The Late Heavy Bombardment lasted much longer than previously thought, up to 1.7 billion years ago on Earth, with impacts on the Moon and Earth coming mostly from the E-belt-survivor Hungaria asteroids.

Telescopic measurements of asteroids' colours rarely match laboratory reflectance spectra of meteorites owing to a 'space weathering' process that rapidly reddens asteroid surfaces. 'Unweathered' asteroids, however, with spectra matching ordinary chondrite meteorites, are seen only among small bodies with orbits that cross inside the orbits of Mars and Earth. Such unweathered asteroids are now shown to have experienced orbital intersections closer than the Earth–Moon distance within the past half-million years.

By comparing asteroid detections and a near-Earth-object model the deficit of objects near the Sun is shown to arise from the breakup of most asteroids, especially low-albedo ones, at distances of a few tens of solar radii from the Sun.

A large number of N-body simulations of the giant-impact phase of planet formation, combined with the measured concentrations of highly siderophile elements in Earth’s mantle, reveal that the Moon must have formed at least 40 million years after the condensation of the first solids of the Solar System.

The first 'collisional family' has been spotted among objects in the Kuiper belt, which lies on the outskirts of the Solar System. The identification could provide useful constraints on the outer Solar System's history.

The dynamical history of the seven-planet TRAPPIST-1 system, which is marked by delicate orbital resonances, is meticulously reconstructed. This study unveils the key physical processes that shaped its formation during and beyond the circumstellar disk phase.

N-body simulations show that the Earth might have accreted stochastically from various precursor bodies with different compositions depending on their formation temperature. This scenario fits the elemental isotope composition of the bulk Earth and suggests the presence of a radial gradient in the composition of the protoplanetary disk.

Triton, Neptune's largest moon, was probably part of a two-body object similar to the Pluto–Charon system. This tandem might have been ripped apart when it strayed too close to the planet that Triton is now orbiting.

Lunar impact simulations find an impactor-retention ratio three times lower than previously thought and indicate that highly siderophile element retention began 4.35 billion years ago, resolving accretion mass discrepancies between Earth and the Moon.