Related papers: The Spherical Bolometric Albedo of Planet Mercury

Using a newly developed `holistic' atmospheric model of the aerosol structure in Uranus's atmosphere, based upon observations made by HST/STIS, Gemini/NIFS and IRTF/SpeX from 2000 -- 2009, we make a new estimate the bolometric Bond albedo…

We used recently produced Solar System ephemerides, which incorporate two years of ranging observations to the MESSENGER spacecraft, to extract the secular orbital elements for Mercury and associated uncertainties. As Mercury is in a stable…

There exists a positive correlation between orbital eccentricity and the average stellar flux that planets receive from their parent star. Often, though, it is assumed that the average equilibrium temperature would correspondingly increase…

[Abridged] If both the day-side and night-side effective temperatures of a planet can be measured, it is possible to estimate its Bond albedo, 0<A_B<1, as well as its day-night heat redistribution efficiency, 0<epsilon<1. We attempt a…

We measured the system-integrated thermal emission of the binary Kuiper Belt Object 1999 TC36 at wavelengths near 24 and 70 microns using the Spitzer space telescope. We fit these data and the visual magnitude using both the Standard…

Studying the albedos of the planets and moons of the Solar System dates back at least a century. Of particular interest is the relationship between the albedo measured at superior conjunction, known as the ``geometric albedo", and the…

M-stars comprise 80% of main-sequence stars, and so their planetary systems provide the best chance for finding habitable planets, i.e.: those with surface liquid water. We have modelled the broadband albedo or reflectivity of water ice and…

Hot Jupiters are expected to be dark from both observations (albedo upper limits) and theory (alkali metals and/or TiO and VO absorption). However, only a handful of hot Jupiters have been observed with high enough photometric precision at…

Some ultraluminous X-ray sources in nearby galaxies show soft components resembling thermal disc emission. Calculations based on blackbody emission then indicate that the accreting black holes at the centres of these discs have masses of…

The ice-albedo feedback is a potentially important de-stabilizing effect for the climate of terrestrial planets. It is based on the positive feedback between decreasing surface temperatures, an increase of snow and ice cover and an…

We report spectroscopic observations of the earthshine reflected from the Moon. By applying our photometry methodology to spectroscopy, we were able to precisely determine the Earth's reflectance, and its variation as a function of…

From estimates of the near-surface heat capacity of planets it is shown that the thermal time scale is larger than the orbital period in the presence of a global ocean that is well-mixed to a depth of 100 m, or of an atmosphere with a…

KOI-13 was presented by the Kepler team as a candidate for having a giant planet - KOI-13.01, with orbital period of 1.7 d and transit depth of ~0.8%. We have analyzed the Kepler Q2 data of KOI-13, which was publicly available at the time…

The pervasive Mars dust is continually transported between the surface and the atmosphere. When on the surface, dust increases the albedo of darker underlying rocks and regolith, which modifies climate energy balance and must be quantified.…

The photometric properties of the surface of Mars describe how remote measurements of surface reflectance can be linked to hemispherical albedo used for energy balance calculations. A simple Lambert model is frequently assumed for global…

In this paper we propose an analytic function for the spherical albedo values of airless and near-airless magma ocean planets (AMOPs). We generated 2-D fractal surfaces with varying compositions onto which we individually threw 10,000 light…

Secondary eclipse observations of exoplanets at near-infrared wavelengths enable the detection of thermal emission and reflected stellar light, providing insights into the thermal structure and aerosol composition of their atmospheres.…

The atmospheres of extrasolar giant planets are modeled with various effective temperatures and gravities, with and without clouds. Bond albedos are computed by calculating the ratio of the flux reflected by a planet (integrated over…

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…

The potential habitability of known exoplanets is often categorized by a nominal equilibrium temperature assuming a Bond albedo of either 0.3, similar to Earth, or 0. As an indicator of habitability, this leaves much to be desired, because…