Related papers: Weighing the Sun with five photographs
Most attempts to unify general relativity with the standard model of particle physics predict violations of the equivalence principle associated in some way with the composition of the test masses. We test this idea by using observational…
We investigate a method to compute a finite set of preliminary orbits for solar system bodies using the first integrals of the Kepler problem. This method is thought for the applications to the modern sets of astrometric observations, where…
It will be shown that the rotation of the Earth in the Earth-Moon system can be detected by comparing the deflection of a Foucault pendulum at noon on the one hand and at midnight on the other hand. More precisely, on 21 June the midnight…
An intriguing pattern among exoplanets is the lack of detected planets between approximately $1.5$ R$_\oplus$ and $2.0$ R$_\oplus$. One proposed explanation for this "radius gap" is the photoevaporation of planetary atmospheres, a theory…
We determine the density and mass distribution of dark matter within our Solar System. We explore the three-body interactions between dark matter particles, the Sun, and the planets to compute the amount of dark matter gravitationally…
We point out that by comparing the total mass (in gravitational units) of the earth-moon system, as determined by lunar laser ranging, with the sum of the lunar mass as independently determined by its gravitational action on satellites or…
This paper discusses three matter-of-principle methods for measuring the general relativity correction to the Newtonian values of the position of collinear Lagrangian points L1 and L2 of the Sun-Earth-satellite system. All approaches are…
Given a solar luminosity L_Ar = 0.75 L_0 at the beginning of the Archean 3.8 Gyr ago, where L_0 is the present-day one, if the heliocentric distance r of the Earth was r_Ar = 0.956 r_0, the solar irradiance would have been as large as I_Ar…
Observations of the Sun in the visible spectral range belong to standard measurements obtained by instruments both on the ground and in the space. Nowadays, both nearly continuous full-disc observations with medium resolution and dedicated…
We present a method for measuring the Sun's motion using the proper motions of Galactic halo star streams. The method relies on the fact that the motion of the stars perpendicular to a stream from a low-mass progenitor is close to zero when…
The diameter of the Sun has been measured using Baily's beads during central eclipses, observed with portable telescopes. A blend of tiny emission lines produced in the first several hundred kilometers above the photosphere gives a light…
The holy grail of exoplanet searches is an exo-Earth, an Earth mass planet in the habitable zone around a nearby star. Mass is the most important parameter of a planet and can only be measured by observing the motion of the star around the…
Stellar mass plays a central role in our understanding of star formation and aging. Stellar astronomy is largely based on two maps, both dependent on mass, either indirectly or directly: the Hertzprung-Russell Diagram (HRD) and the…
Observations of very low-mass stars with Kepler represent an excellent opportunity to search for planetary transits and to characterize optical photometric variability at the cool end of the stellar mass distribution. In this paper, we…
The Kepler mission has been providing high-quality photometric data leading to many breakthroughs in the exoplanet search and in stellar physics. Stellar magnetic activity results from the interaction between rotation, convection, and…
In Einstein's general relativity theory the metric component gxx in the direction of motion (x-direction) of the sun deviates from unity due to a tensor potential caused by the black hole existing around the center of the galaxy. Because…
We present a classroom based activity using a sunrise photograph of Mont Blanc shadow taken from Geneva to estimate the Earth radius. By determining the direction of solar rays relative to the local vertical and accounting for atmospheric…
Attitude sensors determine the spacecraft attitude through the sensing of an astronomical object, field or other phenomena. The Sun and fixed stars are the two primary astronomical sensing objects. Attitude sensors are critical components…
After more than one year of operation, the Kepler photometer has already provided exquisite data of solar-type stars. During the survey phase, 42 stars have been continuously observed. It appeared that five stars show evidence of…
The Vector Spectromagnetograph (VSM) instrument on the Synoptic Optical Longterm Investigations of the Sun (SOLIS) telescope is capable of obtaining spectropolarimetry for the full Sun (or a select latitudinal range) with one arcsecond…