Related papers: The Palomar Transient Factory Orion Project: Eclip…

A high fraction of massive stars are found to be binaries but only a few of them are reported as photometrically variable. By studying the populations of SB2 in the 30 Doradus region, we found a subset of them that have photometry from the…

Eclipsing binaries (EBs) provide critical laboratories for empirically testing predictions of theoretical models of stellar structure and evolution. Pre-main-sequence (PMS) EBs are particularly valuable, both due to their rarity and the…

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is systematically charting the optical transient and variable sky. A primary science driver of PTF is building a complete inventory of transients in the local Universe (distance less than 200 Mpc). Here,…

In recent years, approximately 150 low-mass white dwarfs (WDs), typically with masses below 0.4 solar masses, have been discovered. Observational evidence indicates that most of these low-mass WDs are found in binary systems, supporting…

Since 2004, we have been engaged in a long-term observing program to monitor young stellar objects in the Orion Nebula Cluster. We have collected about two thousands frames in V, R, and I broad-band filters on more than two hundred nights…

We present results of the second planetary and low-luminosity object transit campaign conducted by the OGLE-III survey. Three fields (35'x35' each) located in the Carina regions of the Galactic disk (l~290) were monitored continuously in…

We report the discovery of a pre-main-sequence, low-mass, double-lined, spectroscopic, eclipsing binary in the Orion star-forming region. We present our observations including radial velocities derived from optical high-resolution…

We report low resolution near infrared spectroscopic observations of the eruptive star FU Orionis using the Integral Field Spectrograph Project 1640 installed at the Palomar Hale telescope. This work focuses on elucidating the nature of the…

The TOLIMAN project is engaged with the construction, launch and operation of a low-cost space telescope of unorthodox optical design. Its primary science goal targets an exhaustive search for temperate-orbit rocky planets around either…

We present optical light curves of twenty-nine novae in M31 during the 2009 and 2010 observing seasons of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). The dynamic and rapid cadences in PTF monitoring of M31, from one day to even ten minutes,…

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) that orbit the Sun on or within Earth's orbit are tricky to detect for Earth-based observers due to their proximity to the Sun in the sky. These small bodies hold clues to the dynamical history of the inner solar…

We report on a high-spatial-resolution survey for binary stars in the periphery of the Orion Nebula Cluster, at 5 - 15 arcmin (0.65 - 2 pc) from the cluster center. We observed 228 stars with adaptive optics systems, in order to find…

We aim at constraining evolutionary models at low mass and young ages by identifying interesting transiting system members of the nearest OB association to the Sun, Upper Scorpius, targeted by the Kepler mission. We produced light curves…

Co-orbital objects, also known as trojans, are frequently found in simulations of planetary system formation. In these configurations, a planet shares its orbit with other massive bodies. It is still unclear why there have not been any…

Located in the Orion Trapezium cluster, Theta 1 Orionis C is one of the youngest and nearest high-mass stars (O5-O7) and also known to be a close binary system. Using new multi-epoch visual and near-infrared bispectrum speckle…

Low-mass stars and sub-stellar objects are essential in tracing the initial mass function (IMF). We study the nearby young $\sigma$ Orionis cluster (d$\sim$408 pc; age$\sim$1.8 Myr) using deep NIR photometric data in J, W and H-bands from…

We present a near-IR survey for the visual multiples in the Orion molecular clouds region at separations between 100 and 1000 AU. These data were acquired at 1.6~$\mu$m with the NICMOS and WFC3 cameras on the Hubble Space Telescope.…

We present medium resolution spectroscopy and multi-epoch VRI photometry for 21 new nearby (< 50 pc) white dwarf systems brighter than V ~ 17. Of the new systems, ten are DA (including a wide double degenerate system with two DA…

Two dedicated asteroid rotation-period surveys have been carried out using data taken on January 6-9 and February 20-23 of 2014 by the Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) in the $R$~band with $\sim 20$-min cadence. The total…

Parallaxes, proper motions, and optical photometry are presented for 51 systems made up 37 cool subdwarf and 14 additional high proper motion systems. Thirty-seven systems have parallaxes reported for the first time, 15 of which have proper…