Related papers: Keepers of the Double Stars
Planet formation is often considered in the context of one circumstellar disk around one star. Yet stellar binary systems are ubiquitous, and thus a substantial fraction of all potential planets must form and evolve in more complex,…
The cross-identification of sources in separate catalogs is one of the most basic tasks in observational astronomy. It is, however, surprisingly difficult and generally ill-defined. Recently Budav\'ari & Szalay (2008) formulated the problem…
It is now clear that central star binarity plays a key role in the formation and evolution of planetary nebulae, with a significant fraction playing host to close-binary central stars which have survived one or more common envelope…
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…
Tension between cosmic microwave background-based and distance ladder-based determinations of the Hubble constant ${\rm H}_{\rm 0}$ motivates pursuit of independent methods that are not subject to the same systematic effects. A promising…
The adaptive optics system at the 3.6 m AEOS telescope was used to measure the astrometry and differential magnitude in I-band of 56 binary stars in 2002. The astrometric measurements will be of use for future orbital determination, and the…
We present results from a radial-velocity survey of 373 giant stars at Lick Observatory, which started in 1999. The previously announced planets iota Dra b and Pollux b are confirmed by continued monitoring. The frequency of detected…
The results of 4,747 intensified CCD observations of double stars, made with the 26-inch refractor of the U.S. Naval Observatory, are presented. Each observation of a system represents a combination of over two thousand short-exposure…
Black holes in binary star systems are vital for understanding the process of pr oducing gravitational wave sources, understanding how supernovae work, and for p roviding fossil evidence for the high mass stars from earlier in the Universe.…
LIGO and Virgo have initiated the era of gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy; but in order to fully explore GW frequency spectrum, we must turn our attention to innovative techniques for GW detection. One such approach is to use binary…
Over the past 10 years abundant evidence has emerged that many (if not all) stars are born with circumstellar disks. Understanding the evolution of post-accretion disks can provide strong constraints on theories of planet formation and…
We review the history and present status of radio-source catalogue archiving and on-line retrieval of radio source data. Large efforts were spent by the first author in collecting and restoring electronic versions of new and old source…
We have attempted to establish an observational evidence for presence of distant companions which may have acquired and/or absorbed the angular momentum during evolution of multiple systems thus facilitating or enabling formation of contact…
Some few hundred million years after the big bang the Universe was illuminated by the first stars and galaxies thereby bringing an end to the cosmological dark ages. Since the installation of WFC3 on the Hubble Space Telescope our ability…
The era of gravitational wave astronomy began in 2015 with the observation of the signal from the merger of two black holes by the LIGO detectors; by 2021, almost 100 more such transient signals from coalescences of compact binaries of…
Many nearby main-sequence stars have been searched for debris using the far-infrared Herschel satellite, within the DEBRIS, DUNES and Guaranteed-Time Key Projects. We discuss here 11 stars of spectral types A to M where the stellar…
With 20-20 hindsight, it is now possible to say that the first observational indication -- by any means -- of the existence of an extrasolar planetary system came almost a century ago when van Maanen discovered and noted the spectrum of the…
The discovery of the first extra-solar planet surrounding a main-sequence star was announced in 1995, based on very precise radial velocity (Doppler) measurements. A total of 34 such planets were known by the end of March 2000, and their…
Russell (1948) famously described eclipses as the "royal road" to stellar astrophysics. From photometric and spectroscopic observations it is possible to measure the masses and radii (to 1% or better!), and thus surface gravities and mean…
For centuries, humanity wondered if there were other worlds like ours in the Universe. For about a quarter of a century, we have known that planetary systems exist around other stars, and more than 3800 exoplanetary systems have been…