Related papers: Lost in space? Relativistic interstellar navigatio…
High precision spectrographs can enable not only the discovery of exoplanets, but can also provide a fundamental measurement in Galactic dynamics. Over about ten year baselines, the expected change in the line-of-sight velocity due to the…
Just as the ordinary Doppler effect serves as a tool to measure radial velocities of celestial objects, so can the relativistic Doppler effect be implemented to measure a combination of radial and transverse velocities by using recent…
The high accuracy of modern space astrometry requires the use of General Relativity to model the propagation of stellar light through the gravitational field encountered from a source to a given observer inside the Solar System. In this…
We use high resolution numerical simulations to study whether gravitational instabilities within circumstellar discs can produce astrometrically detectable motion of the central star. For discs with masses of M_disc = 0.1 M_star, which are…
Determining star cluster distances is essential to analyse their properties and distribution in the Galaxy. In particular it is desirable to have a reliable, purely photometric distance estimation method for large samples of newly…
A new era of space exploration and exploitation is fast approaching. A multitude of spacecraft will flow in the future decades under the propulsive momentum of the new space economy. Yet, the flourishing proliferation of deep-space assets…
We present a new three-dimensional map of dust reddening, based on Gaia parallaxes and stellar photometry from Pan-STARRS 1 and 2MASS. This map covers the sky north of a declination of -30 degrees, out to a distance of several kiloparsecs.…
This study introduces a new "Non-Dimensional" star identification algorithm to reliably identify the stars observed by a wide field-of-view star tracker when the focal length and optical axis offset values are known with poor accuracy. This…
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…
Stellar activity interferes with precise radial velocity measurements and limits our ability to detect and characterize planets, particularly Earth-like planets. We introduce \aestra (Auto-Encoding STellar Radial-velocity and Activity), a…
We show that distances of objects at cosmological distances can be measured directly using interferometry. Our approach to interferometric parallax comes from analysis of 4-point amplitude and intensity correlations that can be generated…
We present a method to estimate distances to stars with spectroscopically derived stellar parameters. The technique is a Bayesian approach with likelihood estimated via comparison of measured parameters to a grid of stellar isochrones, and…
The most successful method used so far to search for extrasolar planets is the radial velocity technique, where periodical shifts on the measured emission from a star provide evidence for an orbiting planet. This method has been used on…
To perform precise and accurate photometric catalogue cross-matches -- assigning counterparts between two separate datasets -- we need to describe all possible sources of uncertainty in object position. With ever-increasing time baselines…
This paper presents a novel method for real-time 3D navigation in large-scale, complex environments using a hierarchical 3D visibility graph (V-graph). The proposed algorithm addresses the computational challenges of V-graph construction…
Advanced civilizations capable of interstellar travel, if they exist, are likely to have advanced propulsion methods. Spaceships moving at high speeds would leave a particular signature which could be detected from Earth. We propose a…
Experience in exploring our own solar system has shown that direct investigation of planetary bodies using space probes invariably yields scientific knowledge not otherwise obtainable. In the case of exoplanets, such direct investigation…
The light from a source at a distance d will arrive at detectors separated by 100 AU at times that differ by as much as 120 (d/100 Mpc)^{-1} nanoseconds because of the curvature of the wavefront. At gigahertz frequencies, the arrival time…
Space provides unique opportunities to test gravitation. By using an interplanetary spacecraft as a test mass, it is possible to test General Relativity at the Solar System distance scale. This requires to compute accurately the trajectory…
Astrometry is a powerful technique in astrophysics to measure three-dimensional positions of stars and other astrophysical objects, including exoplanets and the gravitational influence they have on each other. Interferometric astrometry is…