Related papers: Whitening the Sky: light pollution as a form of cu…
Nearly a century after the true nature of galaxies as distant "island universes" was established, their origin and evolution remain great unsolved problems of modern astrophysics. One of the most promising ways to investigate galaxy…
The fields of occultation and microlensing are linked historically. Early this century, occultation of the Sun by the Moon allowed the apparent positions of background stars projected near the limb of the Sun to be measured and compared…
The premise of "near-field cosmology" is that the study of nearby low-mass galaxies on a star-by-star basis has implications that extend far beyond the local Universe and include the nature of dark matter, lives and deaths of the first…
One of the most pressing questions in climate science is that of the effect of anthropogenic aerosol on the Earth's energy balance. Aerosols provide the `seeds' on which cloud droplets form, and changes in the amount of aerosol available to…
A long-standing and profound problem in astronomy is the difficulty in obtaining deep near-infrared observations due to the extreme brightness and variability of the night sky at these wavelengths. A solution to this problem is crucial if…
Nighttime photographers are often troubled by light pollution of unwanted artificial lights. Artificial lights, after scattered by aerosols in the atmosphere, can inundate the starlight and degrade the quality of nighttime images, by…
The alignments of galaxies across the large-scale structure of the Universe are known to be a source of contamination for gravitational lensing, but they can also probe cosmology and the physics of galaxy evolution in many ways. In this…
The changes in colors across a galaxy are intimately connected to the galaxy's formation, growth, quenching history, and dust content. A particularly important epoch in the growth of galaxies is near $z \sim 2$ often referred to as `cosmic…
In this paper I review a series of observations which do not agree with the standard interpretation of the extinction curve. The consequence is that light we receive from a reddened star must be contaminated by starlight scattered at very…
The measurement of chemical abundances in planetary nebulae in nearby galaxies is now relatively straightforward. The challenge is to use these chemical abundances to infer the chemical evolution of their host galaxies. At this point, our…
Episodic mass loss is not understood theoretically, neither accounted for in state-of-the-art models of stellar evolution, which has far-reaching consequences for many areas of astronomy. We introduce the ERC-funded ASSESS project…
As part of the mission of the International Astronomical Union Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (IAU-CPS) Policy Hub to consider national and international regulations about the…
The transition from earlier lighting technologies to white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is a significant change in the use of artificial light at night. LEDs emit considerably more short-wavelength light into the environment than earlier…
The interstellar medium is the engine room for galactic evolution. While much is known about the conditions within the ISM, many important areas regarding the formation and evolution of the various phases of the ISM leading to star…
The development and progress of the studies of winds and mass loss from hot stars, from about 1965 up to now, is discussed in a personal historical perspective. The present state of knowledge about stellar winds, based on papers presented…
We propose a search for sources of directed energy systems such as those now becoming technologically feasible on Earth. Recent advances in our own abilities allow us to foresee our own capability that will radically change our ability to…
The observed extragalactic background light (EBL) is affected by light attenuation due to absorption of light by galactic and intergalactic dust in the Universe. Even galactic opacity of 10-20 percent and minute universe intergalactic…
We investigate the star formation and dust extinction properties of very luminous infrared galaxies whose spectra display a strong Hdelta line in absorption and a moderate [OII] emission (e[a] spectrum). This spectral combination has been…
The aerosol masking effect, or global dimming, is a well-documented instance of our ongoing climate predicament: Efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas production by curbing industrial activity or transitioning to clean sources such as solar or…
World population and the number of cultural artifacts are growing exponentially or faster, while cultural interaction approaches the fidelity of a global nervous system. Every day hundreds of millions of images are loaded into social…