Related papers: Small solar system objects on highly inclined orbi…
The orbit of the Chelyabinsk object is calculated, applying the least-squares method directly to astrometric positions. The dynamical evolution of this object in the past is studied by integrating equations of motion for particles with…
The spin-orbit alignment of binary stars traces their formation and accretion history. Previous studies of spin-orbit alignment have been limited to small samples, slowly rotating solar-type stars, and/or wide visual binaries that not…
During the planet formation process, billions of comets are created and ejected into interstellar space. The detection and characterization of such interstellar comets (also known as extra-solar planetesimals or extra-solar comets) would…
A numerical integration of the equations of motion of the Sun-planets-an object system is used to study the evolution of orbits close to the orbit of the P/1996 R2 object, which is a Jupiter-crossing object, and to the asteroidal orbit of…
The population of comets hosted by the Oort cloud is heterogeneous. Most studies in this area focused on highly active objects, those with small perihelion distances or examples of objects with peculiar physical properties and/or unusual…
We present a study of rotation across 30 square degrees of the Orion Star-forming Complex, following a $\sim$200 d photometric monitoring campaign by the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). From 5749 light curves of Orion members, we…
Protostellar binaries harbour complex environment morphologies. Observations represent a snapshot in time, and projection and optical depth effects impair our ability to interpret them. Careful comparison with high-resolution models that…
Planet formation is often considered in the context of one circumstellar disk around one star. Yet stellar binary systems are ubiquitous, and thus a substantial fraction of all potential planets must form and evolve in more complex,…
In the last decades Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) have become very important targets to study, since they can give us clues to the formation, evolution and composition of the Solar System. In addition, they may represent either a threat to…
Recent observations of the near-horizon regions of BHs, particularly the images captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, have greatly advanced our understanding of gravity in extreme conditions. These images reveal a…
An unexpected space debris population has been detected in 2004 Schildknecht et al. (2003, 2004) with the unique properties of a very high area-to-mass ratio (HAMR) Schildknecht et al. (2005a). Ever since it has been tried to investigate…
We have analyzed Kepler light curves for 849 stars with T_eff < 5200 K from our Cycle 1 Guest Observer program. We identify six new eclipsing binaries, one of which has an orbital period of 29.91 d, and two of which are probably W UMa…
The study of very short-period contact binaries provides an important laboratory in which the most important and problematic astrophysical processes of stellar evolution take place. Short-period contact systems, such as CC Com are…
The orientation between a star's spin axis and a planet's orbital plane provides valuable information about the system's formation and dynamical history. For non-transiting planets at wide separations, true stellar obliquities are…
We present the results of a study aimed at assessing whether low and high mass stars form similarly. Our approach is (1) to examine the observed projected rotational velocities among a large sample of newly-formed stars spanning a range in…
Most comets are volatile-rich bodies that have recently entered the inner solar system following long-term storage in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud reservoirs. These reservoirs feed several distinct, short-lived "small body"…
Context. The corona of the Sun is the part of the solar atmosphere with temperatures of over one million Kelvin, which needs to be heated internally in order to exist. This heating mechanism remains a mystery; we see large magnetically…
By pursuing the goal to find new variables in the COROT field-of-view we characterised a sample of stars located in the lower part of the instability strip. Our sample is composed of stars belonging to the disk population in the solar…
We used the optical and near-infrared imagers located on the Liverpool, the IAC80, and the William Herschel telescopes to monitor 18 M7$-$L9.5 dwarfs with the objective of measuring their rotation periods. We achieved accuracies typically…
We present long-term BVRI observations of 2010 WG9, an ~100-km diameter trans-Neptunian object (TNO) with an extremely high inclination of 70 deg discovered by the La Silla - QUEST southern sky survey. Most of the observations were obtained…