Related papers: Six Hot Topics in Planetary Astronomy
Observations in the optical, in X-rays, and gravitational lensing of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and large-scale structure are beginning to provide clues to the dark matter problem. I review the impact of these observations on some of…
Progress in astronomy comes from interpreting the signals encoded in the light received from distant objects: the distribution of light over the sky (images), over photon wavelength (spectrum), over polarization angle, and over time…
Binaries have played a crucial role many times in the history of modern astronomy and are doing so again in the rapidly evolving exploration of the Kuiper Belt. The large fraction of transneptunian objects that are binary or multiple, 48…
The Hubble Space Telescope has recently discovered thousands of gigantic comet-like objects in a ring around the central star in the nearest planetary nebula. We suggest that such circumstellar rings exist around most stars. Collisions of…
The numerical simulation of turbulence in stars has led to a rich set of possibilities regarding stellar pulsations, asteroseismology, thermonuclear yields, and formation of neutron stars and black holes. The breaking of symmetry by…
Eighty planetary systems of two or more planets are known to orbit stars other than the Sun. For most, the data can be sufficiently explained by non-interacting Keplerian orbits, so the dynamical interactions of these systems have not been…
In these Canberra summer school lectures we treat a number of topical issues in neutrino astrophysics: the solar neutrino problem, including the physics of the standard solar model, helioseismology, and the possibility that the solution…
Royal Society Discussion Meeting (2013) `Characterizing exoplanets'. Of the 900+ confirmed exoplanets discovered since 1995 for which we have constraints on their mass (i.e., not including Kepler candidates), 75% have masses larger than…
We review the basic concepts, the present state of theoretical models, and the future prospects for theory and observations of pulsating stellar atmospheres. Our emphasis is on radially pulsating cool stars, which dynamic atmospheres…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the most energetic events in the universe, offering insights into stellar collapse, extreme matter behavior, and cosmic evolution. The advent of multi-messenger astronomy, combining electromagnetic,…
This is a brief overview of the elemental abundance patterns that have been observed in the different Galactic stellar populations. Main focus is on studies that are based on high-resolution spectra of dwarf and subgiant stars, and in some…
This review presents an insight into our current knowledge of the atmospheres of the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the satellite Titan, and those of exoplanets. It deals with the thermal structure, aerosol…
Planets are common objects in the Universe, observationally as well as theoretically. However, the standard theory of their formation encounters many difficulties, such as dust fall and disk lifetime problems. We positively analyze them,…
I comment (in a review fashion) on a few selected topics in the field of extragalactic globular clusters with strong emphasis on recent work. The topics are: bimodality in the colour distribution of cluster systems, young massive clusters,…
We are still far from understanding how pulsars pulse, how neutron stars are born, what neutron stars can emit, and in which way they do this. In this short communication, I list 18 alternatives -- several of them old, a few of them new --…
The past few years have seen several breakthroughs in particle astrophysics and cosmology. In several cases, new observations can only be explained with the introduction of new fundamental physics. In this talk I summarize some of these…
The study of the Universe and all its contents, the physical phenomena and the evolution of the sky objects has always attracted the Humanity. The Astronomy begins to try to explain these things, others sciences too. Therefore, we think a…
Our Universe is full of regions where extreme physical conditions are realized. Among the most intriguing cases are the so-called magnetars: neutron stars with very dense cores and super-strong magnetic fields. In this paper I review the…
Modern cosmology has created a tight link between particle physics / field theory and a wealth of new observational data on the structure of the Universe. These lecture notes focus on some of the most important aspects concerning the…
The following problems are discussed. 1. Pulsars and close binaries. 2. Hulse-Taylor pulsar. 3. Disrupted pulsar pairs. 4. RP statistics. 5. Enhanced evaporation: formation of single RP. 6. General relativity effects: NS+NS. 7. A Double…