Related papers: The Small Numbers of Large Kuiper Belt Objects
Ever since the very first photometric studies of Centaurs and Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) their visible color distribution has been controversial. That controversy gave rise to a prolific debate on the origin of the surface colors of these…
This paper reports the discovery of new slowly pulsating B-type stars. Based on the photometric, spectral, and astrometric data of TESS, LAMOST, and Gaia surveys, we have found 286 new slowly pulsating B-type stars (SPB stars) and 21…
We present here some of the first results we have obtained on the study of the optical spectra of Spitzer/MIPS 24 micron-selected galaxies in the COSMOS field. This is part of a series of studies we are conducting to analyse the optical…
We investigate the long-term evolution of the inclinations of the known classical and resonant Kuiper belt objects (KBOs). This is partially motivated by the observed bimodal inclination distribution and by the putative physical differences…
We report the discovery and confirmation of a bright quasi-stellar object (QSO), 2MASS J13260399+7023462, at $z=2.889$. This QSO is the first spectroscopically confirmed candidate from an ongoing search using the combination of Gaia and…
The near-infrared spectrum of (50000) Quaoar obtained at the Keck Observatory shows distinct absorption features of crystalline water ice, solid methane and ethane, and possibly other higher order hydrocarbons. Quaoar is only the fifth…
Discovery of transneptunian object (TNO) satellites and determination of their orbits has recently enabled estimation of the size and albedo of several small TNOs, extending the size range of objects having known size and albedo down into…
The dust measured in debris disks traces the position of planetesimal belts. In our Solar System, we are also able to measure the largest planetesimals directly and can extrapolate down to make an estimate of the dust. The zodiacal dust…
By using recent publicly available observational data obtained in conjunction with the NASA Swift gamma-ray burst mission and a novel data analysis technique, we have been able to make some rough estimates of the GRB afterglow apparent…
We report the discovery of seven high proper motion stars with proper motions between about 0.7 and 2.2 arcsec/yr. They were detected in an archival search using multi-epoch positions in the optical SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys and in the…
The size distribution in the cold classical Kuiper belt can be approximated by two idealized power laws: one with steep slope for radii R>R* and one with shallow slope for R<R*, where R*~25-50 km. Previous works suggested that the SFD…
To expand the known number of low-redshift galaxies which lie close to bright ($V < 17.2$) QSO lines of sight, we have identified 24 galaxies within 11 arcmins of nine QSOs which have been observed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).…
As indicated by their special characteristics, the cold classical Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) formed and survived at 42-47 au. Notably, they show a large fraction of equal-size binaries whose formation is probably related to the accretion of…
In order to detect and characterise cold extended circumstellar dust originating from collisions of planetesimal bodies in disks, belts, or rings at Kuiper-Belt distances (30-50 AU or beyond) sensitive submillimetre observations are…
We present models of the shapes of four Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) and Jovian Trojan (624) Hektor as ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium and Roche binaries. Our simulations select those figures of equilibrium whose lightcurves best match the…
The discovery of binaries in each of the major populations of minor bodies in the solar system is propelling a rapid growth of heretofore unattainable physical information. The availability of mass and density constraints for minor bodies…
The Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) exhibit an orbital clustering of the outer planets lying at perihelion distances larger than Neptune and semimajor axes greater than 150 AU from the Sun. This implies a hitherto unknown dynamical mechanism to…
The study of absorptions along the lines of sight to bright high-$z$ QSOs is an invaluable cosmological tool that provides a wealth of information on the inter-/circum-galactic medium, Dark Matter, primordial elements, reionization,…
From 1996 to 2015 sixteen main belt asteroids were discovered exhibiting cometary activity (less than one per year), all of them during searches at the telescope. In this work we will explore another way to discover them. We reduced 192016…
We describe the discovery of a bright, young Kuiper belt-like debris disk around HD 115600, a $\sim$ 1.4--1.5 M$_\mathrm{\odot}$, $\sim$ 15 Myr old member of the Sco-Cen OB Association. Our H-band coronagraphy/integral field spectroscopy…