Related papers: Limits of ultra-high-precision optical astrometry:…
Optical interferometry provides us with a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of stellar structure and evolution. Through direct observation of rotationally distorted photospheres at sub-milliarcsecond scales, we are now able to…
A small fraction of all quasars are strongly lensed and multiply imaged, with usually a galaxy acting as the main lens. Some, maybe all of these quasars are also affected by microlensing, the effects of stellar mass objects in the lensing…
Stellar activity and rotation frustrate the detection of exoplanets through the radial velocity technique. This effect is particularly of concern for M dwarfs, which can remain magnetically active for billions of years. We compile rotation…
We explore the limits of photometric reductions of crowded stellar fields observed with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Two photometric procedures, based on the DoPHOT and DAOPHOT/ALLFRAME programs…
Differential Interferometry allows to obtain the differential visibility and phase, in addition to the spectrum. The differential phase contains important information about the structure and motion of stellar photosphere such as stellar…
Surface granulation can be predicted with the mass, metallicity, and frequency of maximum power of a star. Using the orders-of-magnitude larger APOGEE-Kepler sample, we recalibrate the relationship fit by Corsaro et al. (2017) for…
Spatial fluctuations in ultraviolet backgrounds can subtly modulate the distribution of extragalactic sources, a potential signal and systematic for large-scale structure surveys. While this modulation has been shown to be significant for…
The distribution of instellation at the top of a planet's atmosphere or surface is usually calculated using the inverse-square law of radiation. This is based on the assumption that the host star is far enough to be considered a point-sized…
Exoplanet host star activity, in the form of unocculted star spots or faculae, alters the observed transmission and emission spectra of the exoplanet. This effect can be exacerbated when combining data from different epochs if the stellar…
When studying transiting exoplanets it is common to assume a spherical planet shape. However short rotational periods can cause a planet to bulge at its equator, as is the case with Saturn whose equatorial radius is almost 10% larger than…
Recent exoplanet surveys revealed that for solar-type stars, close-in Super-Earths are ubiquitous and many of them are in multi-planet systems. These systems are more compact than the Solar System's terrestrial planets. However, there have…
The Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect is the distortion of stellar spectral lines that occurs during eclipses or transits, due to stellar rotation. We assess the future prospects for using the RM effect to measure the alignment of planetary…
Accurate modelling of solar-like oscillators requires that modelled mode frequencies are corrected for the systematic shift caused by improper modelling of the near-surface layers, known as the surface effect. ... We investigate how much…
Mountain ranges, volcanoes, trenches, and craters are common on rocky bodies throughout the Solar System, and we might we expect the same for rocky exoplanets. With ever larger telescopes under design and a growing need to not just detect…
Measurements of the obliquities in exoplanet systems have revealed some remarkable architectures, some of which are very different from the Solar System. Nearly 200 obliquity measurements have been obtained through observations of the…
Stellar mass plays a central role in our understanding of star formation and aging. Stellar astronomy is largely based on two maps, both dependent on mass, either indirectly or directly: the Hertzprung-Russell Diagram (HRD) and the…
We analyse the effect on adiabatic stellar oscillation frequencies of replacing the near-surface layers in 1D stellar structure models with averaged 3D stellar surface convection simulations. The main difference is an expansion of the…
Astrometric detection of an unseen companion is based on analysis of apparent motion of its host star around the system's barycentre. Systems with orbital period close to one year may escape detection if orbital motion of their host stars…
High-accuracy astrometry permits the determination of not only stellar tangential motion, but also the component along the line-of-sight. Such non-spectroscopic (i.e. astrometric) radial velocities are independent of stellar atmospheric…
In addition to planets and other small bodies, stellar systems will likely also host exozodiacal dust, or exozodi. This warm dust primarily resides in or near the habitable zone of a star, and scatters stellar light in visible to NIR…