Related papers: Space-Based Thermal Infrared Studies of Asteroids
The upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) means that we will soon have the capability to characterize the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets. However, it is still unknown whether such planets orbiting close to M dwarf stars…
Asteroids can be considered as sources of contamination of point sources and also sources of confusion noise, depending whether their presence is detected in the image or their flux is under the detection limit. We estimate that at low…
Given the compositional diversity of asteroids, and their distribution in space, it is impossible to consider returning samples from each one to establish their origin. However, the velocity and molecular composition of primary minerals,…
Despite the revolution in our knowledge resulting from the detection of planets around mature stars, we know almost nothing about planets orbiting young stars because rapid rotation and active photospheres preclude detection by radial…
High precision radial velocity (RV) measurements have been central in the study of exoplanets during the last two decades, from the early discovery of hot Jupiters, to the recent mass measurements of Earth-sized planets uncovered by transit…
Space astrometry is capable of sub-microarcsecond measurements of star positions. A hundred visits over several years could yield relative astrometric precision of ~0.1 uas, below the astrometric signature (0.3 uas) of a Sun-Earth system at…
The purpose of this review is to discuss the advantages and problems of near-infrared surveys in observing pulsating stars in the Milky Way. One of the advantages of near-infrared surveys, when compared to optical counterparts, is that the…
Satellites of asteroids have been discovered in nearly every known small body population, and a remarkable aspect of the known satellites is the diversity of their properties. They tell a story of vast differences in formation and evolution…
We recognize the need for the characterization of exoplanets in reflected light in the visible and in the IR termal emission. But for the thermal infrared we also recognize the difficulty of an interferometric nuller We nevertheless endorse…
With the inception of gravitational wave astronomy, astrophysical studies using interferometric techniques have begun to probe previously unknown parts of the universe. In this work, we investigate the potential of a new interferometric…
Terrestrial planets may be detected using the gravitational microlensing technique. This was demonstrated in the high magnification event MACHO-98-BLG-35. Observing strategies aimed at measuring the abundance of terrestrial planets are…
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) observed 52 Centaurs and Scattered Disk Objects in the thermal infrared, including the 15 discoveries that were new. We present analyses of these observations to estimate sizes and mean optical…
The Earth is impacted by 35-40 metre-scale objects every year. These meteoroids are the low mass end of impactors that can do damage on the ground. Despite this they are very poorly surveyed and characterised, too infrequent for ground…
Astrometry is one of the oldest branches of astronomy which measures the position, the proper motion and parallax of celestial objects. Following the Hipparcos and Gaia missions that have measured several billions of them using global…
Rectified diameters and albedo estimates of 1517 main belt asteroid selected from the IRAS and MSX asteroid photometry catalogues are derived from updated infrared thermal models, the Standard Thermal Model (STM) and the Near Earth Asteroid…
The available set of spin and shape modelled asteroids is strongly biased against slowly rotating targets and those with low lightcurve amplitudes. As a consequence of these selection effects, the current picture of asteroid spin axis…
We performed a statistical analysis of the astrometric errors for the major asteroid surveys. We analyzed the astrometric residuals as a function of observation epoch, observed brightness and rate of motion, finding that astrometric errors…
ASTRO-F is the first Japanese satellite mission dedicated for large area surveys in the infrared. The 69cm aperture telescope and scientific instruments are cooled to 6K by liquid Helium and mechanical coolers. During the expected mission…
Large ground-based telescopes equipped with adaptive optics (AO) systems have ushered in a new era of high-resolution infrared photometry and astrometry. Relative astrometric accuracies of <0.2 mas have already been demonstrated from…
The apparent size of stars is a crucial benchmark for fundamental stellar properties such as effective temperatures, radii and surface gravities. While interferometric measurements of stellar angular diameters are the most direct method to…