Related papers: Cassini imaging search rules out rings around Rhea
Proxima Centauri is known to host an earth-like planet in its habitable zone; very recently a second candidate planet was proposed based on radial velocities. At quadrature, the expected projected separation of this new candidate is larger…
The luminous infrared-loud quasar IRAS 13349+2438 was observed with the XMM-Newton Observatory as part of the Performance Verification program. The spectrum obtained by the Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) exhibits broad (v ~ 1400 km/s…
A measurement of the absorption of neutrinos with energies in excess of 10 TeV when traversing the Earth is capable of revealing its density distribution. Unfortunately, the existence of beams with sufficient luminosity for the task has…
We have obtained new velocity-resolved spectra of the [CII] 158 micron line towards the Ring Nebula in Lyra (NGC 6720), one of the best-studied planetary nebulae, in order to probe its controversial 3-dimensional structure and to estimate…
We present the discovery of `A Big Ring on the Sky' (BR), the second ultra-large large-scale structure (uLSS) found in MgII-absorber catalogues, following the previously reported Giant Arc (GA). In cosmological terms the BR is close to the…
The imaging by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) of the supermassive central objects at the heart of the M87 and Milky Way (Sgr A$^\star$) galaxies, has marked the first step into peering at the photon rings and central brightness…
Exploratory missions have found that regolith on interplanetary bodies can be loosely packed and freely flowing, a state that strongly affects mission plans and that may also influence the large scale shapes of these bodies. We investigate…
Neptune's incomplete ring arcs have been stable since their discovery in 1984 by stellar occultation. Although these structures should be destroyed within a few months through differential Keplerian motion, imaging data over the past couple…
Saturn's ionosphere is produced when the otherwise neutral atmosphere is exposed to a flow of energetic charged particles or solar radiation. At low latitudes the latter should result in a weak planet-wide glow in infrared (IR),…
The standard light curve of a microlensing event provides only two constraints on the six unknown parameters of the lens. We show that narrow-band photometry during a microlensing event of a giant star can in addition determine the angular…
Epsilon Eridani is a nearby, young Sun-like star that hosts a ring of cool debris analogous to the solar system's Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. Early observations at (sub-)mm wavelengths gave tentative evidence of the presence of inhomogeneities…
The surfaces of the large Uranian satellites are characterized by a mixture of H2O ice and a dark, potentially carbon-rich, constituent, along with CO2 ice. At the mean heliocentric distance of the Uranian system, native CO2 ice should be…
Planetary rings are the only nearby astrophysical disks, and the only disks that have been investigated by spacecraft. Although there are significant differences between rings and other disks, chiefly the large planet/ring mass ratio that…
Spokes are localized clouds of fine particles that appear over the outer part of Saturn's B ring. Over the course of the Cassini Mission, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) obtained over 20,000 images of the outer B ring, providing the…
Aims. Falomo et al. (2005) discovered a disk-like galaxy at ~ 1.2 arcsec from the QSO Q0045-3337 by means of ESO VLT adaptive optics. They estimated a galaxy Einstein radius (for a point mass) of comparable size, thus pointing up the…
The optically and IR bright, and starlight-scattering, HR 4796A ring-like debris disk is one of the most (and best) studied exoplanetary debris systems. The presence of a yet-undetected planet has been inferred (or suggested) from the…
We present multi-wavelengths observations and a radiative transfer model of a newly discovered massive circumstellar disk of gas and dust which is one of the largest disks known today. Seen almost edge-on, the disk is resolved in…
This paper is framed within a large project devoted to studying the presence of circumstellar material around main sequence stars, and looking for exocometary events. The work concentrates on HR 10 (A2 IV/V), known for its conspicuous…
We present a detailed analysis of narrow of NaI and KI absorption resonance lines toward nearly 40 T Tauri stars in Taurus with the goal of clarifying their origin. The NaI 5889.95 angstrom line is detected toward all but one source, while…
Plasma rotation plays a large role in determining the size and shape of Saturn's disc-like magnetosphere. A magnetosphere more confined to the equator in the polar regions is expected as a result of the interaction between this type of…