Related papers: Nearby Motionless Stars
Neutron stars are the densest, directly observable stellar objects in the universe and serve as unique astrophysical laboratories to study the behavior of matter under extreme physical conditions. This book chapter is devoted to describing…
We show that it is possible to define a purely Photometric Fundamental Plane (PFP) for early-type galaxies. This relation is similar to the standard Fundamental Plane (FP), and is obtained by replacing the velocity dispersion parameter with…
The extreme conditions found near black holes and neutron stars provide a unique opportunity for testing physical theories. Observations of both types of compact objects can be used to probe regions of strong gravity, allowing for tests of…
We present maximum-likelihood search methods for time-dependent fluxes from point sources, such as flares or periodic emissions. We describe a method for the case when the time dependence of the flux can be assumed a priori from other…
We analyze the properties of searches devoted to finding planetary transits by observing simple stellar systems, such as globular clusters, open clusters, and the Galactic bulge. We develop the analytic tools necessary to predict the number…
A new all-sky catalog of stars with proper motions pm>0.15"/yr is presented. The catalog is largely a product of the SUPERBLINK survey, a data-mining initiative in which the entire Digitized Sky Surveys are searched for moving stellar…
Stars are usually faint point sources and investigating their surfaces and interiors observationally is very demanding. Here I give a review on the state-of-the-art observing techniques and recent results on studying interiors and surface…
The fields of occultation and microlensing are linked historically. Early this century, occultation of the Sun by the Moon allowed the apparent positions of background stars projected near the limb of the Sun to be measured and compared…
We briefly review selected results in astrophysics of neutron stars (NSs) obtained during the last two years, focusing on isolated radioquiet objects. We discuss in some details population synthesis of close-by isolated NSs, spectra of…
The process of identifying stars is integral toward stellar based orientation determination in spacecraft. Star identification involves matching points in an image of the sky with stars in an astronomical catalog. A unified framework for…
Nomadic worlds, i.e., objects not gravitationally bound to any star(s), are of great interest to planetary science and astrobiology. They have garnered attention recently due to constraints derived from microlensing surveys and the recent…
This paper is devoted to exploring how we can discover and study nearby (< 1-2 kpc) planetary and binary systems by observing their action as gravitational lenses. Lensing can extend the realm of nearby binaries and planets that can be…
Astrometric measurements of stellar systems are becoming significantly more precise and common, with many ground and space-based instruments and missions approaching 1 microarcsecond precision. We examine the multi-wavelength astrometric…
Context. Astrometric microlensing is an excellent tool to determine the mass of a stellar object. By measuring the astrometric shift of a background source star in combination with precise predictions of its unlensed position and of the…
Despite progress in the theoretical knowledge of open cluster remnants and the growing search for observational identifications in recent years, open questions still remain. The methods used to analyze open cluster remnants and criteria to…
The past two decades have seen dramatic progress in our knowledge of the population of young stars of age $< 200\,$Myr that lie within $150\,$pc of the Sun. These nearby, young stars, most of which are found in loose, comoving groups,…
We present a novel, easy-to-use method based on the photon-mapping technique to simulate photometric images of moving targets. Realistic images can be created in two passes: photon tracing and image rendering. The nature of light sources,…
We present a method by using the phase characteristics of radio observation data for pulsar search and candidate identification. The phase characteristics are relations between the pulsar signal and the phase correction in the…
Context. Kinematical data such as the mean velocities and velocity dispersions of stellar samples are useful tools to study galactic structure and evolution. However, observational data are often incomplete (e.g., lacking the radial…
I investigate the prospects for using the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) to measure the masses of nearby stars from their astrometric deflection of more distant sources, as originally suggested by Paczynski and by Miralda-Escude. I…