Related papers: Probing Interstellar Dust With Space-Based Coronag…
We analyze the properties of searches devoted to finding planetary transits by observing simple stellar systems, such as globular clusters, open clusters, and the Galactic bulge. We develop the analytic tools necessary to predict the number…
The in-situ detection of interstellar dust grains in the Solar System by the dust instruments on-board the Ulysses and Galileo spacecraft as well as the recent measurements of hyperbolic radar meteors give information on the properties of…
We present a quantitative model for the infrared emission from dust in the diffuse interstellar medium. The model consists of a mixture of amorphous silicate grains and carbonaceous grains, each with a wide size distribution ranging from…
When a star is observed behind an interstellar cloud of sufficient column density, we do not observe the direct light from the star, which is totally extinguished. Rather, we see only starlight scattered at small angles from the star. I use…
X-ray scattering is a powerful probe of the optical constants and grain size distribution of interstellar dust. Bright, transient sources are excellent tools for this, since they fade rapidly, leaving only the expanding scattered x-ray…
X-ray bright quasars might be used to trace dust in the circumgalactic and intergalactic medium through the phenomenon of X-ray scattering, which is observed around Galactic objects whose light passes through a sufficient column of…
The face-on disk around TW Hya is imaged in scattered light at wavelengths of 1.1 and 1.6 micron using the coronagraph in the Near Infrared Camera and Multi Object Spectrometer aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. Stellar light scattered from…
All water-covered rocky planets in the inner habitable zones of solar-type stars will inevitably experience a catastrophic runaway climate due to increasing stellar luminosity and limits to outgoing infrared radiation from wet greenhouse…
High-contrast imaging observations of large angular diameter stars enable complementary science questions to be addressed compared to the baseline goals of proposed missions like the Terrestrial Planet Finder-Coronagraph, New World's…
Many massive stars travel through the interstellar medium at supersonic speeds. As a result they form bow shocks at the interface between the stellar wind. We use numerical hydrodynamics to reproduce such bow shocks numerically, creating…
Scattered light images of circumstellar disks play an important role in characterizing the planet forming environments around young stars. The characteristic size of the scattering dust grains can be estimated from the observed brightness…
We observed Sirius, Altair, and Procyon with the NICMOS Coronagraph on the Hubble Space Telescope to look for scattered light from exozodiacal dust and faint companions within 10 AU from these stars. We did not achieve enough dynamic range…
Context. The largest grains (0.5-1 micron) in the interstellar size distribution are efficient in scattering near- and mid-infrared radiation. These wavelengths are therefore particularly well suited to probe the still uncertain high-end of…
The standard method of mapping the interstellar medium in a galaxy, by observing the molecular gas in the CO 1-0 line and the atomic gas in the 21-cm line, is largely limited with current telescopes to galaxies in the nearby universe. In…
In a previous paper, we discussed an original solution to improve the performances of coronagraphs by adding, in the optical scheme, an adaptive hologram removing most of the residual speckle starlight. In our simulations, the detection…
We present a provisory scattered light detection of the Vega debris disk using deep Hubble Space Telescope coronagraphy (PID 16666). At only 7.7 parsecs, Vega is immensely important in debris disk studies both for its prominence and also…
The current searches for microlensing events towards the galactic bulge can be used to detect planets around the lensing stars. Their effect is a short-term modulation on the smooth lightcurve produced by the main lensing star. Current and…
Aims. We present a solution to improve the performance of coronagraphs for the detection of exo-planets. Methods. We simulate numerically several kinds of coronagraphic systems, with the aim of evaluating the gain obtained with an adaptive…
For 117 clusters of galaxies, we explore the detectability of intracluster dust grains by current and future infrared facilities, taking into account both collisional heating and sputtering of grains by ambient plasma. If the dust grains…
Aims: Stars twinkle because their light propagates through the atmosphere. The same phenomenon is expected at a longer time scale when the light of remote stars crosses an interstellar molecular cloud, but it has never been observed at…