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The Hilda asteroids are among the least studied populations in the asteroid belt, despite their potential importance as markers of Jupiter's migration in the early Solar system. We present new mid-infrared observations of two notable…

Asteroid (175706) 1996 FG3 is a binary asteroid and the baseline target for the proposed MarcoPolo-R sample-return mission. We present thermal IR photometry obtained with the ESO VLT+VISIR together with optical photometry obtained with the…

We present estimates of the basic physical properties (size and albedo) of (90377) Sedna, a prominent member of the detached trans-Neptunian object population and the recently discovered scattered disk object 2010 EK139, based on the recent…

We report on follow-up observations with XMM-Newton, the FORS2 instrument at the ESO-VLT, and FAST, aiming to characterise the nature of five thermally emitting isolated neutron star (INS) candidates recently discovered from searches in the…

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…

Earth and orbital-based radar observations of asteroids provide a unique opportunity to characterize surface roughness and the dielectric properties of their surfaces, as well as potentially explore some of their shallow subsurface physical…

High spectral resolution observations of Venus were obtained with the TEXES instrument at NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility. These observations focus on a CO$_2$ absorption feature at 791.4 cm$^{-1}$ as the shape of this absorption feature…

We perform a comprehensive study of thermonuclear bursts from the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1702-429 detected with NICER and XMM-Newton. The thermonuclear burst detected with NICER shows clear evidence of a photospheric radius…

Thermal measurements constrain the physical properties of icy satellite surfaces, including grain size, porosity, and regolith structure. On Europa, analyses of the Galileo Photopolarimeter-Radiometer (PPR) dataset revealed thermal inertia…

The near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 2015 TB145 had a very close encounter with Earth at 1.3 lunar distances on October 31, 2015. We obtained 3-band mid-infrared observations with the ESO VLT-VISIR instrument and visual lightcurves during the…

The majority of known asteroid diameters are derived from thermal-infrared observations. Diameters are derived using asteroid thermal models that approximate their surface temperature distributions and compare the measured thermal-infrared…

Small near-Earth asteroids (>20 meters) are interesting because they are progenitors for meteorites in our terrestrial collection. Crucial to our understanding of the effectiveness of our atmosphere in filtering low-strength impactors is…

Ground-based characterization of spacecraft targets prior to mission operations is critical to properly plan and execute measurements. Understanding surface properties, like mineralogical composition and phase curves (expected brightness at…

We present thermal infrared observations of the active asteroid (and Geminid meteoroid stream parent) 3200 Phaethon using the Very Large Telescope. The images, at 10.7 micron wavelength, were taken with Phaethon at its closest approach to…

We present an analysis of optical and infrared spectra of the recurrent nova RS Oph obtained during between 2006 and 2009. The best fit to the optical spectrum for 2006 September 28 gives effective temperature Tef = 3900~K for log g = 2.0,…

We study the physical characteristics (shape, dimensions, spin axis direction, albedo maps, mineralogy) of the dwarf-planet Ceres based on high-angular resolution near-infrared observations. We analyze adaptive optics J/H/K imaging…

We present THERMAP, a mid-infrared (8-16 {\mu}m) spectro-imager for space missions to small bodies in the inner solar system, developed in the framework of the MarcoPolo-R asteroid sample return mission. THERMAP is very well suited to…

Asteroids near the Sun can attain equilibrium temperatures sufficient to induce surface modification from thermal fracture, desiccation and decomposition of hydrated silicates. We present optical observations of nine asteroids with…

We present JWST observations of the near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon using the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to further investigate the composition of Phaethon's…

The Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) will study the ultra-red asteroid (269)~Justitia. In this work, we present the first detailed investigation of Justitia's surface dynamics using the newly developed 3-D polyhedral shape model…