Related papers: The Sizes of Kuiper Belt Objects
We examine a large collection of low resolution near-infrared spectra of Kuiper belt objects and centaurs in an attempt to understand the presence of water ice in the Kuiper belt. We find that water ice on the surface of these objects…
Colors of Trans Neptunian Objects (TNOs) are used to study the evolutionary processes of bodies in the outskirts of the Solar System, and to test theories regarding their origin. Here I describe a search for serendipitous Sloan Digital Sky…
We present models of the shapes of four Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) and Jovian Trojan (624) Hektor as ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium and Roche binaries. Our simulations select those figures of equilibrium whose lightcurves best match the…
We discuss the current knowledge of the Solar system, focusing on bodies in the outer regions, on the information they provide concerning Solar system formation, and on the possible relationships that may exist between our system and the…
Observations of extragalactic objects need to be corrected for Galactic absorption and this is often accomplished by using the measured 21 cm HI column. However, within the beam of the radio telescope there are variations in the HI column…
The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) was initiated with an extensive allocation (590 orbits in Cycles 12-13) using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for high resolution imaging. Here we review the characteristics of the HST imaging with the…
The Kepler mission provides an exciting opportunity to study the lightcurves of stars with unprecedented precision and continuity of coverage. This is the first look at a large sample of stars with photometric data of a quality that has…
We discuss a possibility to survey many Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO) with a single launch using a few smallscale spacecraft, each equipped with solar sails, which could be unfurled from a single interplanetary bus at the perihelion of that…
The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) will detect objects in the Kuiper Belt, by measuring the rate of occultations of stars by these objects, using an array of three to four 50cm wide-field robotic telescopes. Thousands of stars…
I review the current capabilities of small, medium and large telescopes in the study of minor bodies of the Solar System (MBOSS), with the goal of identifying those areas where the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) are…
The stellar obliquity of a transiting planetary system can be constrained by combining measurements of the star's rotation period, radius, and projected rotational velocity. Here we present a hierarchical Bayesian technique for recovering…
Near Earth Objects (NEOs) are small Solar System bodies whose orbits bring them close to the Earth's orbit. We are carrying out a Warm Spitzer Cycle 11 Exploration Science program entitled NEOSurvey --- a fast and efficient flux-limited…
Context. A recent observational census of Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) has unveiled anomalous orbital structures. This has led to the hypothesis that an additional $\sim5-10~m_{\oplus}$ planet exists. This planet, known as Planet 9, occupies…
The outcome of collisions between small icy bodies, such as Kuiper belt objects, is poorly understood and yet a critical component of the evolution of the trans-Neptunian region. The expected physical properties of outer solar system…
The Spitzer Space Telescope has advanced debris disk science tremendously with a wealth of information on debris disks around nearby A, F, G, K and M stars at 24 and 70 microns with the MIPS photometer and at 8-34 microns with IRS. Here we…
The Colours of the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (Col-OSSOS) has gathered high quality, near-simultaneous (g-r) and (r-J) colours of 92 Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) with (u-g) and (r-z) gathered for some. We present the current state of…
The Deep Ecliptic Survey (DES) discovered hundreds of Kuiper Belt objects from 1998-2005. Follow-up observations yielded 304 objects with good dynamical classifications (Classical, Scattered, Centaur, or 16 mean-motion resonances with…
We utilize Kepler data to study the precision differential photometric variability of solar-type and cooler stars at different timescales, ranging from half an hour to 3 months. We define a diagnostic that characterizes the median…
The search for minor bodies in the solar system promises insights into its formation history. Wide imaging surveys offer the opportunity to serendipitously discover and identify these traces of planetary formation and evolution. We aim to…
The cold classical Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) possess a high, $\gtrsim30\%$ binary fraction. Widely separated and dynamically fragile, these binary systems have been useful in tracing the origins of KBOs. A new class of binaries was…