Related papers: Using Intermediate-Luminosity Optical Transients (…
We present a new near-infrared photometric system for detection of water ice and methane ice in the solar system. The system consists of two medium-band filters in the K-band region of the near-infrared, which are sensitive to water ice and…
(Abridged) We present the first detections of the mean flux of the optical extragalactic background light (EBL) at 3000, 5500, and 8000A. Diffuse foreground flux at these wavelengths comes from terrestrial airglow, dust-scattered sunlight…
The dust disks observed around mature stars are evidence that plantesimals are present in these systems on spatial scales that are similar to that of the asteroids and the KBOs in the Solar System. These dust disks (a.k.a. ``debris disks'')…
Most known trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) gravitationally scattering off the giant planets have orbital inclinations consistent with an origin from the classical Kuiper belt, but a small fraction of these "scattering TNOs" have inclinations…
We investigate the prospects for detecting dust from two body collisions during the late stages of planet formation at 1-150 AU. We develop an analytic model to describe the formation of a dusty cloud of debris and use numerical coagulation…
Debris discs are dusty belts of planetesimals around main-sequence stars, similar to the asteroid and Kuiper belts in our solar system. The planetesimals cannot be observed directly, yet they produce detectable dust in mutual collisions.…
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…
(Abridged) Thirty-three objects with possible origins beyond the Kuiper Belt edge, very high inclinations, very large semi-major axes or large perihelion distances were observed to determine their surface colors. All three objects that have…
The discoveries of two Interstellar Objects (ISOs) in recent years has generated significant interest in constraining their physical properties and the mechanisms behind their formation. However, their ephemeral passages through our Solar…
(Abridged) We access the expected EKB dust disk properties by modeling. We treat the debiased population of the known transneptunian objects (TNOs) as parent bodies and generate the dust with our collisional code. The resulting dust…
We construct a scenario where the outburst of the young-stellar-object ASASSN-15qi is an intermediate luminosity optical transient (ILOT). In this scenario a sub-Jupiter young planet was tidally destructed on to a young main-sequence star.…
The dust disk detected by Pioneer at a heliocentric distance of 18 AU is a fraction of the dust generated by the Kuiper belt outside 30 AU. New Horizons will find a very high flux of more than 10 hits per day for each square meter of…
Following the widespread practice of exoplanetary transit simulations, various presumed components of an extrasolar system can be examined in numerically simulated transits, including exomoons, rings around planets, and the deformation of…
An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) close-up view of the Sun offers unprecedented detail of heating events in the solar corona. Enhanced temporal and spatial images obtained by the Solar Orbiter during its first science perihelion enabled us to…
We discuss the current knowledge of the Solar system, focusing on bodies in the outer regions, on the information they provide concerning Solar system formation, and on the possible relationships that may exist between our system and the…
We have searched for infrared excesses around a well defined sample of 69 FGK main-sequence field stars. These stars were selected without regard to their age, metallicity, or any previous detection of IR excess; they have a median age of…
I show that a dedicated space telescope with a meter-size aperture can detect numerous interstellar objects, 10-m in diameter, that pass within ~20 degrees from the Sun. Separating the emitted thermal radiation from the reflection of…
Observations indicate that some of the largest Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) have retained volatiles in the gas phase, which implies the presence of an atmosphere that can affect their reflectance spectra and thermal balance. Volatile escape…
Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) are generally very faint and cannot in practice be monitored with a well-sampled long-term light curve; so our discovery of the bright KBO 2000 EB173 offers an excellent opportunity for synoptic studies. We…
With the Infrared Space Observatory, we conducted 3x3-pixel imaging photometry of twelve luminosity class III stars, which were previously presumed to have dust particles around them, at far infrared wavelengths (60 and 90 um). Eleven out…