Related papers: Life Beyond PTF
Modern astronomical surveys, such as the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), are capable of detecting thousands of transient events per year, necessitating the use of automated and scalable data analysis techniques. Recent advances in machine…
We present DeepStreaks, a convolutional-neural-network, deep-learning system designed to efficiently identify streaking fast-moving near-Earth objects that are detected in the data of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a wide-field,…
The current generation of all-sky surveys is rapidly expanding our ability to study variable and transient sources. These surveys, with a variety of sensitivities, cadences, and fields of view, probe many ranges of timescale and magnitude.…
The Zwicky Transit Factory (ZTF) is a powerful time domain survey facility with a large field of view. We apply the synthetic tracking technique to integrate a ZTF's long-dwell dataset, which consists of 133 nominal 30-second exposure…
The Bright Transient Survey (BTS) relies on visual inspection ("scanning") to select sources for accomplishing its mission of spectroscopically classifying all bright extragalactic transients found by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). We…
We present Tails, an open-source deep-learning framework for the identification and localization of comets in the image data of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a robotic optical time-domain survey currently in operation at the Palomar…
Lasair is the UK Community Broker for transient alerts from the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. We explain the system's capabilities, how users can achieve their scientific goals, and how Lasair is…
The forthcoming launch of the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT) will transform our understanding of the transient ultraviolet sky by increasing our ability to identify transients due to its unprecedented 204 deg2 field of…
A fast-turnaround pipeline for realtime data reduction plays an essential role in discovering and permitting follow-up observations to young supernovae and fast-evolving transients in modern time-domain surveys. In this paper, we present…
We present five new outbursting AM CVn systems and one candidate discovered as part of an ongoing search for such systems using the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). This is the first large-area, systematic search for AM CVn systems using…
The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is systematically charting the optical transient and variable sky. A primary science driver of PTF is building a complete inventory of transients in the local Universe (distance less than 200 Mpc). Here,…
We have converted the Palomar 60-inch telescope (P60) from a classical night assistant-operated telescope to a fully robotic facility. The automated system, which has been operational since September 2004, is designed for moderately fast (t…
While optical surveys regularly discover slow transients like supernovae on their own, the most common way to discover extragalactic fast transients, fading away in a few nights, is via follow-up observations of gamma-ray burst and…
Planetary materials orbiting white dwarf stars reveal the ultimate fate of the planets of the Solar System and all known transiting exoplanets. Observed metal pollution and infrared excesses from debris disks support that planetary systems…
The upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) is expected to detect a few million transients per night, which will generate a live alert stream during the entire ten years of the survey. This stream will be distributed via community…
The last couple of decades have seen an emergence of transient detection facilities in various avenues of time domain astronomy which has provided us with a rich dataset of transients. The rates of these transients have implications in star…
The classification of variable objects provides insight into a wide variety of astrophysics ranging from stellar interiors to galactic nuclei. The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) provides time series observations that record the variability…
We present a measurement of the volumetric rate of `calcium-rich' optical transients in the local universe, using a sample of three events from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). This measurement builds on a detailed study of the PTF…
Efficient automated detection of flux-transient, reoccurring flux-variable, and moving objects is increasingly important for large-scale astronomical surveys. We present braai, a convolutional-neural-network, deep-learning real/bogus…
Thousands of active artificial objects are orbiting around Earth along with much more non-operational ones -- derelict satellites or rocket bodies, collision debris, or spacecraft payloads, significant part of them being uncatalogued. They…