Related papers: The astronomical units
In its 16 years of scientific measurements, the Spitzer Space Telescope performed a number of ground-breaking infrared measurements of Solar System objects. In this second of two papers, we describe results from Spitzer observations of…
Gaia is an all sky, high precision astrometric and photometric satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) due for launch in 2010-2011. Its primary mission is to study the composition, formation and evolution of our Galaxy. Gaia will…
The Universe is a physical object. Physical objects have shapes and sizes. General relativity is insufficient to describe the global shape and size of the Universe: the Hilbert-Einstein equations only treat limiting quantities towards an…
A diverse set of observations now compellingly suggest that Universe possesses a nonzero cosmological constant. In the context of quantum-field theory a cosmological constant corresponds to the energy density of the vacuum, and the wanted…
The 88 constellations as defined by the IAU segment the sky into regions, separated by an intricate set of boundaries. A binary tree decomposition of this landscape is given which tessellates the celestial sphere into rectangles. This…
I suggest that stars introduce mass and density scales that lead to `naturalness' in the Universe. Namely, two ratios of order unity. (1) The combination of the stellar mass scale, M*, with the Planck mass, MPl, and the Chandrasekhar mass…
We propose a new system for the fundamental units, which includes and goes beyond the present redefinition of the SI, by choosing also $c=\hbar=1$. By fixing $c=c_\circ $m/s = 1, $\hbar=\hbar_\circ $ Js = 1 and…
A recent Letter proposed changing the dimensionless status of the radian and steradian within the SI, while allowing the continued use of the convention to set the angle 1 radian equal to the number 1 within equations, providing this is…
In this article we outline the structure of a general relativistic astrometric model which has been developed to deduce the position and proper motion of stars from 1-microarcsecond optical observations made by an astrometric satellite…
The effect of a cosmological constant on the precession of the line of apsides is O(\Lambda c^2 r^3/GM) which is 3(H_\circ P)^2/8\pi^2 \approx 10^{-23} for a vacuum-dominated Universe with Hubble constant H_\circ = 65 km/sec/Mpc and for the…
We summarize some of the compelling new scientific opportunities for understanding stars and stellar systems that can be enabled by sub-milliarcsec (sub-mas) angular resolution, UV-Optical spectral imaging observations, which can reveal the…
Taking into account four universal constants, namely the Planck's constant $h$, the velocity of light $c$, the constant of gravitation $G$ and the Boltzmann's constant $k$ leads to structuring theoretical physics in terms of three theories…
A comparison of the standard models in particle physics and in cosmology demonstrates that they are not compatible, though both are well established. Basics of modern cosmology are briefly reviewed. It is argued that the measurements of the…
We present estimates of distances, ages and masses for over 6 million stars. These estimates are derived from the combination of spectrophotometric data and Gaia eDR3 parallaxes. For that, we used the previously published Unified tool to…
Over the last decade, cosmological observations have attained a level of precision which allows for detailed comparison with theoretical predictions. In this paper, we briefly review some studies of the current and prospected constraints…
Astrophysical studies require a knowledge of very accurate positions, motions and distances of stars. A brief overview is given of the significance and development of astrometry by ESA's two astrometric satellites, Hipparcos and Gaia,…
It is generally argued that the present cosmological observations support the accelerating models of the universe, as driven by the cosmological constant or `dark energy'. We argue here that an alternative model of the universe is possible…
The high accuracy of modern space astrometry requires the use of General Relativity to model the propagation of stellar light through the gravitational field encountered from a source to a given observer inside the Solar System. In this…
While Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) are one of the most mature cosmological probes, the next era promises to be extremely exciting in the number of different ways SNe Ia are used to measure various cosmological parameters. Here we review the…
Most of the calculations done to obtain the value of the cosmological constant use methods of quantum gravity, a theory that has not been established as yet, and a variety of results are usually obtained. The numerical value of the…