Related papers: Masses for Free-Floating Planets and Dwarf Planets
The distribution of orbital period ratios of adjacent planets in extra-solar planetary systems discovered by the {\it Kepler} space telescope exhibits a peak near $\sim1.5$--$2$, a long tail of larger period ratios, and a steep drop-off in…
Recent work has suggested that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is not universal, but rather is correlated with galaxy stellar mass, stellar velocity dispersion, or morphological type. In this paper, we investigate variations of the…
I show that for a substantial fraction of planets detected in a space-based survey, it would be possible to measure the planet and host masses and distances, if the survey satellite were placed in geosynchronous orbit. Such an orbit would…
We argue that gravitational microlensing is a feasible technique for measuring the mass function of brown dwarf stars in distant galaxies. Microlensing surveys of the bulge of M31, and of M87 in the Virgo cluster, may provide enough events…
We provide new planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) distances to 19 nearby spiral galaxies that were observed with VLT/MUSE by the PHANGS collaboration. Emission line ratios are used to separate planetary nebulae (PNe) from other…
Detection of forming planets means detection of the circumplanetary disk (CPD) in reality, since the planet is still surrounded by a disk at this evolutionary stage. Yet, no comprehensive CPD modeling was done in near-infrared wavelengths,…
We present the discovery and mass measurement of the cold, low-mass planet MOA-2009-BLG-266Lb, made with the gravitational microlensing method. This planet has a mass of m_p = 10.4 +- 1.7 Earth masses and orbits a star of mass M_* = 0.56 +-…
The discovery of planets orbiting at less than 1 au from their host star and less massive than Saturn in various exoplanetary systems revolutionized our theories of planetary formation. The fundamental question is whether these close-in…
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…
With its planet detection efficiency reaching a maximum for orbital radii between 1 and 10 AU, microlensing provides a unique sensitivity to planetary systems similar to our own around galactic and even extragalactic stars acting as lenses…
The questions of how planets form and how common Earth-like planets are can be addressed by measuring the distribution of exoplanet masses and orbital periods. We report the occurrence rate of close-in planets (with orbital periods less…
Nearby masses can have a high probability of lensing stars in a distant background field. High-probability lensing, or mesolensing, can therefore be used to dramatically increase our knowledge of dark and dim objects in the solar…
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) trigonometric parallax observations were obtained to directly determine distances to five nearby M-dwarf / M-dwarf eclipsing binary systems. These systems are intrinsically interesting…
Recently revealed differences in planets around M dwarf vs. solar-type stars could arise from differences in their primordial disks, and surveys of T Tauri stars find a correlation between stellar mass and disk mass. "Minimum" disks have…
Structure in the planet distribution provides an insight into the processes that shape the formation and evolution of planets. The Kepler mission has led to an abundance of statistical discoveries in regards to planetary radius, but the…
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…
Follow the big stars! I review the theory of detection and parameter measurement of planetary systems by follow-up observations of ongoing microlensing events. Two parameters can generically be measured from the event itself: the…
The frequency and properties of multiple star systems offer powerful tests of star formation models. Multiplicity surveys over the past decade have shown that binary properties vary strongly with mass, but the functional forms and the…
The Solar System includes two planets --- Mercury and Mars --- significantly less massive than Earth, and all evidence indicates that planets of similar size orbit many stars. In fact, one of the first exoplanets to be discovered is a…
We determine the parameters of scaling relations analogous to the Fundamental Plane of elliptical galaxies for the bulges and disks of a sample of 40 spiral galaxies. To this end we derive structural parameters (scalelengths and surface…