Related papers: Lost in space? Relativistic interstellar navigatio…
We simulate the observations of proper motion of stars very close to the Galactic Center. We show that the speckle interferometry done with the Keck II telescope is accurate enough to obtain orbital parameters for stars with the period P…
Scientific research is a continuous process, and the speed of future progress can be estimated by the pace of finding explanations for previous research questions. In this observers based view of stellar pulsation and asteroseismology, we…
The traditional celestial navigation system (CNS) is used the moon, stars, and planets as celestial guides. Then the star tracker (i.e. track one star or planet or angle between it) and star sensor (i.e. sense many star simultaneous) be…
To determine the local dark matter density (LDMD) of the solar system is a classical problem in astronomy. Recently, a novel method of determining the LDMD from stellar distribution and vertical velocity dispersion profiles perpendicular to…
Achieving relativistic flight to enable extrasolar exploration is one of the dreams of humanity and the long term goal of our NASA Starlight program. We derive a fully relativistic solution for the motion of a spacecraft propelled by…
An improved version of the 3D stellar reddening map in a space with a radius of 1200 pc around the Sun and within 600 pc of the Galactic midplane is presented. As in the previous 2010 and 2012 versions of the map, photometry with an…
Astrometric surveys such as Gaia and LSST will measure parallaxes for hundreds of millions of stars. Yet they will not measure a single distance. Rather, a distance must be estimated from a parallax. In this didactic article, I show that…
Fully re-orientable small spacecraft are now supported by commercial technologies, allowing them to point their instruments in any direction and capture images, with short notice. When combined with improved onboard processing, and…
Previous analyses of large databases of Milky Way stars have revealed the stellar disk of our Galaxy to be warped and that this imparts a strong signature on the kinematics of stars beyond the solar neighborhood. However, due to the…
In this study, we present a method for detecting and analyzing the velocities of moving objects in Earth observation satellite images, specifically using data from Planet Labs' push broom scanning satellites. By exploiting the sequential…
Despite the advances provided by large-scale photometric surveys, stellar features - such as metallicity - generally remain limited to spectroscopic observations often of bright, nearby low-extinction stars. To rectify this, we present a…
The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) is a spectroscopic survey of the Milky Way. We use the subsample of spectra with spectroscopically determined values of stellar parameters to determine the distances to these stars. The list currently…
In the era of mega-constellations, the need for accurate and publicly available information has become fundamental for satellite operators to guarantee the safety of spacecrafts and the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space environment. This study…
Building upon earlier work, we explore the limits of using a configuration of satellites to measure the trace of the gravitational gradient tensor using intersatellite laser ranging and timing observables without relying on high-precision…
In this paper, we describe a very simple method to calculate the positions of the planets in the sky. The technique used enables us to calculate planetary positions to an accuracy of $\stackrel{<}{_{\sim}} 1^{\circ}$ for $\pm 50$ years from…
The accuracy of orbit determination has a strong impact on the scientific output of the Space VLBI mission RadioAstron. The aim of this work is to improve the RadioAstron orbit reconstruction by means of sophisticated dynamical modelling of…
We present an approach for utilizing astrometric orbit information to improve the yield of planetary images and spectra from a follow-on direct detection mission. This approach is based on the notion-strictly hypothetical-that if a…
The accuracy of astrometric observations conducted via a space-borne optical interferometer orbiting the Earth is expected to approach a few microarcseconds. Data processing of such extremely high-precision measurements requires access to a…
Mobile robot navigation in total or partially unknown environments is still an open problem. The path planning algorithms lack completeness and/or performance. Thus, there is the need for complete (i.e., the algorithm determines in finite…
Knowing the Galactic 3D dust distribution is relevant for understanding many processes in the interstellar medium and for correcting many astronomical observations for dust absorption and emission. Here, we aim for a 3D reconstruction of…