Related papers: IRAS-based whole-sky upper limit on Dyson Spheres
Surface brightness maps at 12 microns, derived from observations with the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), are used to estimate the integrated flux at this wavelength from the Galactic bulge as a function of galactic latitude along…
Technical description of the new project called All Sky Automated Survey and results of the tests of our prototype instrument are presented. The ultimate goal of this project is photometric monitoring of the large area of the sky with fully…
We search for nearby, isolated, accreting, ``stellar-mass'' (3 to $100M_\odot$) black holes. Models suggest a synchrotron spectrum in visible wavelengths and some emission in X-ray wavelengths. Of 3.7 million objects in the Sloan Digital…
IRIS (InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph) is a first light near-infrared diffraction limited imager and integral field spectrograph being designed for the future Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). IRIS is optimized to perform astronomical studies…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is an ambitious, multi-institutional project to create a huge digital imaging and spectroscopic data bank of 25% of the celestial sphere, approximately 10,000 deg^2 centred on the north galactic polar cap. The…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is collecting photometry and intermediate resolution spectra for ~ 10**5 stars in the thick-disk and stellar halo of the Milky Way. This massive dataset can be used to infer the properties of the stars…
We report the results of a spectroscopic search for debris disks surrounding 41 nearby solar type stars, including 8 planet-bearing stars, using the {\it Spitzer Space Telescope}. With accurate relative photometry using the Infrared…
We propose a strategy for searching for isolated stellar mass black holes in the solar neighborhood with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Due to spherical accretion of the inter-stellar medium and the ambient magnetic field, an isolated black…
IRAS flux densities, redshifts, and infrared luminosities are reported for all sources identified in the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample (RBGS), a complete flux-limited survey of all extragalactic objects with total 60 micron flux density…
We are using computer models to explore the observational sensitivity to changes in atmospheric and surface properties, and the detectability of biosignatures, in the globally averaged spectra and light-curves of the Earth. Using AIRS…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will provide the data to support detailed investigations of the distribution of luminous and non- luminous matter in the Universe: a photometrically and astrometrically calibrated digital imaging survey…
Debris disks around stars are considered as components of planetary systems. Constrain the dust properties of these disks can give crucial information to formation and evolution of planetary systems. As an all-sky survey, \textit{InfRared…
Results of the first two years of observations using the All Sky Automated Survey prototype camera are presented. More than 140 000 stars in 50 Selected Fields covering 300 sq. degrees were monitored each clear night in the I-band resulting…
The challenge in searching for non-radio-pulsing isolated neutron stars (INSs) is in excluding association with objects in the very large error boxes (~13", 1 sigma radius) typical of sources from the largest X-ray all-sky survey, the ROSAT…
We are conducting a study on the imprint of the ISM on optical spectra based on two types of ongoing spectroscopic massive-star surveys: on the one hand, intermediate-resolution (R = 2500) green-blue spectra for ~3000 stars obtained with…
Statistical weak lensing by large-scale structure -- cosmic shear -- is a promising cosmological tool, which has motivated the design of several large upcoming surveys. Here, we present a measurement of cosmic shear using coadded Sloan…
The Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope observed about 15,000 objects during the cryogenic mission lifetime. Observations provided low-resolution (R~60-127) spectra over ~5-38um and high-resolution (R~600)…
An automated search for star clusters close to the Galactic plane (|b| < 5 deg) was carried out on the Point Source Catalogue of the DENIS survey. 44% of the Galactic plane have been observed and calibrated. The method allowed to retrieve…
We present version 1.0 of the ISOGAL-DENIS Point Source Catalogue (PSC), containing more than 100,000 point sources detected at 7 and/or 15 micron in the ISOGAL survey of the inner Galaxy with the ISOCAM instrument on board the Infrared…
Assuming the possibility of existence of a supercivilization we extend the idea of Freeman Dyson considering pulsars instead of stars. It is shown that instead of a spherical shell the supercivilization must use ring-like constructions. We…