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The ultra--high energy cosmic rays recently detected by several air shower experiments could have an extragalactic origin. In this case, the nearest active galaxy Centaurus A might be the source of the most energetic particles ever detected…
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is conducting a two-year wide-field survey searching for transiting exoplanets around nearby bright stars that will be ideal for follow-up characterization. To facilitate studies of planet…
It is becoming clear that the atmospheres of the young, self-luminous extrasolar giant planets imaged to date are dusty. Planets with dusty atmospheres may exhibit detectable amounts of linear polarization in the near-infrared, as has been…
The vast majority of young stars hosting planet-forming disks exist within clustered environments, like the Orion Nebula, implying that seemingly `extreme' UV environments (10^4 G_0 and above) are not so atypical in the context of planet…
Astronomers have established that for a few million years newborn stars possess disks of orbiting gas and dust. Such disks, which are likely sites of planet formation, appear to disappear once these stars reach ages of 5-10 times 10^6 yr;…
The properties of disks around brown dwarfs and very-low mass stars (hereafter VLMOs) provide important boundary conditions on the process of planet formation and inform us about the numbers and masses of planets than can form in this…
Exoplanet searches have discovered a large number of 'hot Jupiters'--high-mass planets orbiting very close to their parent stars in nearly circular orbits. A number of these planets are sufficiently massive and close-in to be significantly…
Determining the distribution and spectral signature of volatile ices and organics exposed on icy body surfaces can provide crucial clues for deciphering how the outer solar system formed and evolved. Over the past few decades, ground- and…
Spatially resolved scattered-light images of circumstellar (CS) debris in exoplanetary systems constrain the physical properties and orbits of the dust particles in these systems. They also inform on co-orbiting (but unseen) planets,…
The interstellar thick disks of galaxies contain not only gas, but significant quantities of dust. Most of our knowledge of extraplanar dust in disk galaxies comes from direct broadband optical imaging of these systems, wherein the dust is…
The last two decades have seen remarkable progress in our long-standing goal of determining the abundance and diversity of worlds in the Galaxy. Understanding of this subject involves tracing the path of interstellar material from dense…
The probability of the detection of Earth-like exoplanets may increase in the near future after the launch of the space missions using the transit photometry as observation method. By using this technique only the semi-major axis of the…
The only way to detect planets around stars at distances of several kpc is by (photometric or astrometric) microlensing observations. In this paper, we show that the capability of photometric microlensing extends to the detection of signals…
Exoplanets, or planets outside our own solar system, have long been of interest to astronomers; however, only in the past two decades have scientists had the technology to characterize and study planets so far away from us. With advanced…
With the launch of JWST and the upcoming installation of extremely large telescopes, the first galaxies in our Universe will finally be revealed. Their light will be dominated by massive stars, which peak in in the ultra-violet (UV) part of…
A possibility to detect X-rays from star-formation burst activities in proto-elliptical galaxies is considered. The X-ray flux of an emission due to inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by high energy…
Characterization of exoplanets has matured in recent years, particularly through studies of exoplanetary atmospheres of transiting planets at infra-red wavelenegths. The primary source for such observations has been the Spitzer Space…
Detection of Jupiter mass companions to nearby solar type stars with precise radial velocity measurements is now routine, and Doppler surveys are moving towards lower velocity amplitudes. The detection of several Neptune-mass planets with…
The flow of material from Io's volcanoes into the Io plasma torus, out into the magnetosphere, and along field lines into Jupiter's upper atmosphere is not adequately understood. The lack of observations of spatial and temporal variations…
Ultra-short period planets offer a window into the poorly understood interior composition of exoplanets through material evaporated from their rocky interiors. Among these objects are a class of disintegrating planets, observed when their…