Related papers: Learning from Galileo's errors
The 1703 was the first year of full operation of the meridian line in the Basilica of St. Maria degli Angeli in Rome. The instants of solstices and equinoxes, the \textit{Anni Cardines}, obtained by comparing transit timings of Sun and…
Context: Stellar occultations, greatly enhanced by the publication of the Gaia data releases, permit not only the determination of asteroid size and shape, but also the retrieval of additional, accurate astrometry, with a possible relevant…
In its 16 years of scientific measurements, the Spitzer Space Telescope performed a number of ground-breaking infrared measurements of Solar System objects. In this second of two papers, we describe results from Spitzer observations of…
We present a new method for detecting and correcting systematic errors in the distances to stars when both proper motions and line-of-sight velocities are available. The method, which is applicable for samples of 200 or more stars that have…
The study explored the usage of astronomical observations for the identification and tracking of artificial satellites. Spacecraft streaks on astronomical images are a growing issue for the astronomical community. The increasing number of…
Unusual features of water waves that Galileo described in a letter to Cardinal Orsini in 1616 are revisited from the perspectives of singular optics and geometric analysis.
By collecting distances from the literature, a set of 73 planetary nebulae with mean distances of high accuracy is derived. This sample is used for recalibration of the mass-radius relationship, used by many statistical distance methods. An…
We present novel observations utilising the Cassini spacecraft to conduct an observing campaign for stellar astronomy from a vantage point in the outer solar system. By exploiting occultation events in which Mira passed behind the Saturnian…
Pope Clement XI (1700-1721) ordered Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729) to build a Meridian Line. Bianchini was the Secretary of the Commission for the Calendar. He chose the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli because of the stability of its…
Spacecraft investigations during the last ten years have vastly improved our knowledge about dust in the Jovian system. All Galilean satellites, and probably all smaller satellites as well, are sources of dust in the Jovian system. In-situ…
This paper presents results of a survey of authors of journal articles published over several decades in astronomy. The study focuses on determining the characteristics and accessibility of data behind papers, referring to the spectrum of…
The new geodetic satellite LARES 2, cousin of LAGEOS and sharing with it almost the same orbital parameters apart from the inclination, displaced by 180 deg, was launched last year. Its proponents suggest using the sum of the nodes of…
The project SYPOR wishes to use the global navigation satellite system GALILEO as an autonomous relativistic positioning system for the Earth. Motivations and a sketch of the basic concepts underlying the project are presented. For non…
We study the Galileon scalar field model arising as a decoupling limit of the Dvali-Gababdaze-Porrati (DGP) construction for the late time acceleration of the universe. The model has one extra Galileon correction term over and above the…
In order to study the potential in high precision CCD astrometry of irregular satellites, we have made experimental observations for Himalia, the sixth and irregular satellite of Jupiter. A total of 185 CCD observations were obtained by…
The Gaia satellite was selected as a cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) in October 2000 and confirmed in 2002 with a current target launch date of 2011. The Gaia mission will gather on the same observational principles…
The Lense-Thirring effect is currently being measured by means of a combination of the orbital residuals of the nodes of LAGEOS and LAGEOS II and the perigee of LAGEOS II. The total error is of the order of 20%. The most insidious…
The dynamical features of the irregular satellites of the giant planets argue against an in-situ formation and are strongly suggestive of a capture origin. Since the last detailed investigations of their dynamics, the total number of…
The ESA Gaia mission is a 10+ year astrometric whole-sky scan, demanding consistent data quality over the whole timespan of operations Aims. The Gaia First Look (FL) is a system whose aim is monitoring the data quality to identify problems,…
An intriguing reference to the existence of a self-portrait by Galileo Galilei is contained in the biography of the scientist by Thomas Salusbury dated ca. 1665, of which only one incomplete and inaccessible copy exists. Galileo grew up in…