Related papers: Using Intermediate-Luminosity Optical Transients (…
Using over a million and a half extragalactic spectra we study the properties of the mysterious Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs) in the Milky Way. These data provide us with an unprecedented sampling of the skies at high Galactic-latitude…
Here, we show that the detection of Borisov implies that interstellar objects outnumber Solar system objects in the Oort cloud, whereas the reverse is true near the Sun due to the stronger gravitational focusing of bound objects. This…
The ISOPHOT Serendipity Survey (ISOSS) covered approximately 15 % of the sky at a wavelength of 170 micron while the ISO satellite was slewing from one target to the next. By chance ISOSS slews went over many solar system objects (SSOs). We…
Near-infrared photometry of transiting extrasolar planets can be of great scientific value. It is however not straightforward to reach the necessary millimagnitude precision. Here we report on our attempts to observe transits and secondary…
Since their discovery twenty year ago, transition region bright points (TRBPs) have never been observed spectroscopically. Bright point properties have not been compared with similar transition region and coronal structures. In this work we…
A body in Solar orbit beyond the Kuiper belt exhibits an annual parallax that exceeds its apparent proper motion by up to many orders of magnitude. Apparent motion of this body along the parallactic ellipse will deflect the angular position…
A distant, massive planet in the outer solar system has recently been proposed to explain some observed features of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Here we use N-body simulations of the formation of the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud as…
The hypothesis that a massive Planet Nine exists in the outer solar system on a distant eccentric orbit was inspired by observations showing that the objects with the most distant eccentric orbits in the Kuiper belt have orbits which are…
CK Vulpeculae, which erupted in AD 1670-71, was long considered to be a nova outburst; however, recent observations have required that alternative scenarios be considered. Long slit infrared spectroscopy of a forbidden line of iron reported…
The brightest Fast Blue Optical Transients (FBOTs) are mysterious extragalactic explosions that may represent a new class of astrophysical phenomena. Their fast time to maximum brightness of less than a week and decline over several months…
The Diffuse InfraRed Background Experiment on COBE measured the total infrared signal seen from space at a distance of 1 astronomical unit from the Sun. Using time variations as the Earth orbits the Sun, it is possible to remove most of the…
This study explores the detection of Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPOs) in blazars as a method to identify kink events within their jets, utilizing both $\gamma$-ray and polarized light observations. Focusing on a sample of 9 blazars, we…
We present high precision K-band photometry of the transit and secondary eclipse of extrasolar planet OGLE-TR-113, using the SOFI near-infrared instrument on ESO's NTT. Data were taken in 5 second exposures over two periods of 3-4 hours,…
We study the utility of the [OI] 6300$\mathring{\mathrm A}$ forbidden line for identifying and interpreting externally driven photoevaporative winds in different environments and at a range of distances. Thermally excited [OI]…
We present infrared interferometric observations of the inner regions of two A-star debris disks, beta Leo and zeta Lep, using the FLUOR instrument at the CHARA interferometer on both short (30 m) and long (>200 m) baselines. For the target…
We report the results of a spectroscopic search for debris disks surrounding 41 nearby solar type stars, including 8 planet-bearing stars, using the {\it Spitzer Space Telescope}. With accurate relative photometry using the Infrared…
The Edgeworth-Kuiper belt encodes the dynamical history of the outer solar system. Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) bear witness to coagulation physics, the evolution of planetary orbits, and external perturbations from the solar neighborhood. We…
A wide range of stellar explosions, including supernovae (SNe), tidal disruption events (TDE), and fast blue optical transients (FBOT), can occur in dusty environments initially opaque to the transient's optical/UV light, becoming visible…
In recent years, certain luminous extragalactic optical transients have been observed to last only a few days. Their short observed duration implies a different powering mechanism from the most common luminous extragalactic transients…
IR excesses of white dwarfs (WDs) can be used to diagnose the presence of low-mass companions, planets, and circumstellar dust. Using different combinations of wavelengths and WD temperatures, circumstellar dust at different radial…