Related papers: Die Gerling Sternwarte (Gerling Astronomical Obser…

The measurement of the positions, distances, motions and luminosities of stars represents the foundations of modern astronomical knowledge. Launched at the end of the eighties, the ESA Hipparcos satellite was the first space mission…

Since the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015, gravitational-wave astronomy has emerged as a rapidly advancing field that holds great potential for studying the cosmos, from probing the properties of black holes to testing the…

Observations of extrasolar planets were not projected to be a significant part of the Spitzer Space Telescope's mission when it was conceived and designed. Nevertheless, Spitzer was the first facility to detect thermal emission from a hot…

The observation data for artificial celestial body 43096, which had been obtained during 2006-2012 within the framework of international project "The Scientific Network of Optical Instruments for Astrometric and Photometric Observations" -…

We simulate the observations of proper motion of stars very close to the Galactic Center. We show that the speckle interferometry done with the Keck II telescope is accurate enough to obtain orbital parameters for stars with the period P…

By c. 3000 BC, in the late Neolithic, there had been a significant change in the way people materialized their cosmology across Scotland with the introduction of free-standing stones. These were erected almost until the end of the Bronze…

The Kepler Observatory offers unprecedented photometric precision (<1 mmag) and cadence for monitoring the central stars of planetary nebulae, allowing the detection of tiny periodic light curve variations, a possible signature of binarity.…

The Copernican Principle (which says the Earth and sun are not unique) should have observational consequences and thus be testable. Galileo Galilei thought he could measure the true angular diameters of stars with his telescope; according…

Nowadays the more powerful method to detect extrasolar planets is the transit method. We review the planet transits which were anticipated, searched, and the first ones which were observed all through history. Indeed transits of planets in…

Ancient instruments of high interest for research on the origin and diffusion of early scientific devices in the late XVI - early XVII centuries are reproduced in three paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder. We investigated the nature and the…

The location of objects on the celestial sphere is a fundamental measurement in astronomy, and the distribution of these objects within the Milky Way is important for understanding their evolution as well as the large scale structure of the…

The German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (GAVO) developed the registered service TheoSSA (theoretical stellar spectra access) and the supporting registered VO tool TMAW (Tuebingen Model-Atmosphere WWW interface). These allow individual…

The current knowledge of Mercury orbit has mainly been gained by direct radar ranging obtained from the 60s to 1998 and by five Mercury flybys made by Mariner 10 in the 70s, and MESSENGER made in 2008 and 2009. On March 18, 2011, MESSENGER…

Gravitational deflection of starlight around the Sun during the 1919 total solar eclipse provided measurements that confirmed Einstein's general theory of relativity. We have used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the analogous process…

Disintegrating/evaporating rocky exoplanets can be observed not only as transiting planets, but also in a grazing, non-transiting regime, where the solid body of the planet does not transit, but part of the comet-like tail can transit. In…

Gravitational Waves (GWs) were observed for the first time in 2015, one century after Einstein predicted their existence. There is now growing interest to extend the detection bandwidth to low frequency. The scientific potential of…

With the discovery of the first transiting extrasolar planetary system back to 1999, a great number of projects started to hunt for other similar systems. Because of the incidence rate of such systems was unknown and the length of the…

Launch of the Gaia space observatory started a new era in astrometry when the accuracy of star coordinates increased by thousands of times. Significant improvement of accuracy was also expected for the coordinates of the Solar system…

Einstein Telescope (ET) is a planned third generation gravitational waves detector located in Europe. Its design will be different from currently build interferometers, because ET will consist of three interferometers rotated by a 60 deg…

The recognition that physical space (or space-time) is curved is a product of the general theory of relativity, such as dramatically shown by the 1919 solar eclipse measurements. However, the mathematical possibility of non-Euclidean…