Related papers: Detection Technique for Artificially-Illuminated O…
We have performed a survey of the Kuiper belt covering ~ 1/3 a square degree of the sky using Suprime-cam on the Subaru telescope, to a limiting magnitude of m(R)~ 26.8 (50% threshold) and have found 36 new KBOs. We have confirmed that the…
Dark matter pervades the Solar System, free-streaming at the halo's local Galactic orbital velocity and density. As these objects pass through the Solar system, they perturb gravitationally, and thus very weakly, all nearby inertial masses.…
Dwarf galaxies are important tracers of small-scale cosmological structure, yet much of our knowledge about these systems comes from the limited sample of dwarf galaxies within the Local Group. To make a comprehensive inventory of dwarf…
In order to estimate in absolute terms the luminosity of LHC certain beam parameters have to be measured very accurately. In particular the total beam current and the relative distribution of the charges around the ring, the transverse size…
Recent applications have proved that the Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) technique is a reliable distance indicator in a wide range of distances, and a promising tool to analyze the physical and chemical properties of unresolved…
High-quality time series provided by space instrumentation such as CoRoT and Kepler, allow us to measure modulations in the light curves due to changes in the surface of stars related to rotation and activity. Therefore, we are able to…
In order to understand the appropriate field of view (FOV) size of celestial automatic navigation systems for surface ships, we investigate the variations of measurement accuracy of star position and probability of successful star…
We have conducted pencil-beam searches for outer solar system objects to a limiting magnitude of R ~ 26. Five new trans-neptunian objects were detected in these searches. Our combined data set provides an estimate of ~90 trans-neptunian…
The size distribution and total mass of objects in the Oort Cloud have important implications to the theory of planets formation, including the properties of, and the processes taking place in the early solar system. We discuss the…
We have performed an ecliptic imaging survey of the Kuiper belt with our deepest and widest field achieving a limiting flux of m(g') = 26.4, with a sky coverage of 3.0 square-degrees. This is the largest coverage of any other Kuiper belt…
The improvements of the observations of the solar system allowed by the use of probes and big instruments let appear several problems: The frequencies of the radio signals received from the probes sent over 5 UA from the Sun are too high;…
Due to their extremely small luminosity compared to the stars they orbit, planets outside our own Solar System are extraordinarily difficult to detect directly in optical light. Careful photometric monitoring of distant stars, however, can…
Artificial skyglow is a form of light pollution with wide ranging implications on the environment. The extent, intensity and color of skyglow depends on the artificial light sources and weather conditions. Skyglow can be best determined…
The light deflection of one component of a binary system due to the gravitational field of the other component is investigated. While this relativistic effect has not been observed thus far, the question arises that whether this effect…
The dust tails of comets similar to Hale-Bopp can scatter as much optical light as does the Earth. Space-based observatories such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder or Darwin that will detect extra-solar terrestrial planets also will be able…
All transiting planets are at risk of contamination by blends with nearby, unresolved stars. Blends dilute the transit signal, causing the planet to appear smaller than it really is, or produce a false positive detection when the target…
We propose a Roman Space Telescope survey to investigate fundamental properties of the distant solar system in the region of the Kuiper Belt where object characteristics and the size distribution are inaccessible from any other telescope.…
Digital co-addition of astronomical images is a common technique for increasing signal-to-noise and image depth. A modification of this simple technique has been applied to the detection of minor bodies in the Solar System: first stationary…
The next generation ground-based extremely large telescopes (ELTs) present incredible opportunities to discover and characterize diverse planetary systems, even potentially habitable worlds. Adaptive-optics assisted thermal-IR (3-14 micron)…
Radio wavelength astrometry of stars and other objects has a long and productive history. The use of that technique to determine whether stars have planets around them would cover a nearly unique part of the parameter space for detection of…