Related papers: Six Hot Topics in Planetary Astronomy
Recent observations indicate that >99% of the small bodies in the Solar System reside in its outer reaches --- in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. Kuiper Belt bodies are probably the best preserved representatives of the icy planetesimals…
There exists a number of astronomical spectral phenomena that have remained unidentified after decades of extensive observations. The diffuse interstellar bands, the 220 nm feature, unidentified infrared emission bands, extended red…
These lecture notes aim to provide an introduction to dark matter from the perspective of astrophysics/cosmology. We start with a rapid overview of cosmology, including the evolution of the Universe, its thermal history and structure…
Exotic forms of matter such as carbon nanofoams, hexalambdas, super-hypernuclei, strange stars, pentaquarks, color-balls, etc. and their relations to current problems in cosmo-particle physics such as dark matter and energy are discussed in…
Binary/multiple status can affect stars at all stages of their lifetimes: evolution onto the main sequence, properties on the main sequence, and subsequent evolution. 5 $M_\odot$ stars have provided a wealth of information about the binary…
In this lecture, we give a first introduction to neutron stars, based on fundamental physical principles. After outlining their outstanding macroscopic properties, as obtained from observations, we infer the extreme conditions of matter in…
The Roma International Conference on Astroparticle Physics covered gamma-ray astronomy, air shower experiments and neutrino astronomy on three successive days. I organize my brief summary comments into four topics that cut across these…
In the past decade, numerical simulations started to reveal the possible existence of planet 9 in our solar system. The planet 9 scenario can provide an excellent explanation to the clustering in orbital elements for Kuiper Belt objects.…
Astronomy is at times a science of unexpected discovery. When it is, and if we are lucky, new intellectual territories emerge to challenge our views of the cosmos. The recent indirect detections using high-precision Doppler spectroscopy of…
Strong interaction physics under extreme conditions of high temperature and/or density is of central interest in modern nuclear physics for experimentalists and theorists alike. In order to investigate such systems, model approaches that…
Cosmic explosions are observed in many astrophysical environments. They range in scale from hydromagnetic instabilities in the terrestrial magnetotail and solar ``nanoflares'' to cosmological gamma ray bursts, supernovae and the protracted…
We review the state of the art in follow-up photometry for planetary transit searches. Three topics are discussed: (1) Photometric monitoring of planets discovered by radial velocity to detect possible transits (2) Follow-up photometry of…
The Kepler space telescope monitors over 156.000 stars with an unprecedented photometric precision. We are interested in stellar rotational periods which we find using Lomb-Scargle periodograms. This work focuses on the 306 exoplanet…
We present and discuss five candidate exoplanetary systems identified with the Kepler spacecraft. These five systems show transits from multiple exoplanet candidates. Should these objects prove to be planetary in nature, then these five…
This paper - the first of a short series dedicated to the long-stan ding astronomical problem of de-projecting the bi-dimensional apparent morpholog y of a three-dimensional mass of gas - focuses on the density distribution in real…
The new field of multi-messenger astronomy aims at the study of astronomical sources using different types of "messenger" particles: photons, neutrinos, cosmic rays and gravitational waves. These lectures provide an introductory overview of…
We now know that the outer solar system is host to at least six diverse planetary ring systems, each of which is a scientifically compelling target with the potential to inform us about the evolution, history and even the internal structure…
Black holes are a common feature of the Universe. They are observed as stellar mass black holes spread throughout galaxies and as supermassive objects in their centres. Observations of stars orbiting close to the centre of our Galaxy…
We present an elementary account of mathematical cosmology through a series of important unsolved problems. We introduce the fundamental notion of `a cosmology' and focus on the issue of singularities as a theme unifying many current,…
The possible conversion of neutron matter to strange matter and its relevance to astrophysical problems are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the {\it form} in which this hypothetical burning process should be propagated in dense…