Related papers: Sharing the great conjunction
Remote sensing observations suffer significant limitations when used to study the bulk atmospheric composition of the giant planets of our solar system. This impacts our knowledge of the formation of these planets and the physics of their…
The mid-infrared spectral region provides a unique window into the atmospheric temperature, chemistry, and dynamics of the giant planets. From more than a century of mid-infrared remote sensing, progressively clearer pictures of the…
We present the results of a deep, wide-field transit survey targeting Hot Jupiter planets in the Lupus region of the Galactic plane conducted over 53 nights concentrated in two epochs separated by a year. Using the Australian National…
We update our analysis of recent exoplanet data that gives us a partial answer to the question: How does our Solar System compare to the other planetary systems in the Universe? Exoplanets detected between January and August 2002 strengthen…
Since 2008 we have run an observational program to accurately measure the characteristics of known exoplanet systems hosting close-in transiting giant planets, i.e. hot Jupiters. Our study is based on high-quality photometric follow-up…
Our understanding of planetary systems different to our own has grown dramatically in the past 30 years. However, our efforts to ascertain the degree to which the Solar system is abnormal or unique have been hindered by the observational…
Telescope and detector developments continuously enable deeper and more detailed studies of astronomical objects. Larger collecting areas, improvement in dispersion and detector techniques, and higher sensitivities allow detection of more…
We present an analysis of X-ray observations of the trans-Jovian planets Saturn, Uranus and Neptune with the ROSAT PSPC in comparison with X-ray observations of Jupiter. For the first time a marginal X-ray detection of Saturn was found and…
The field of exoplanetary science has experienced a recent surge of new systems that is largely due to the precision photometry provided by the Kepler mission. The latest discoveries have included compact planetary systems in which the…
We review the interior structure and evolution of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and giant exoplanets with particular emphasis on constraining their global composition. Compared to the first edition of this review, we provide a new…
Saturn was observed by Chandra ACIS-S on 20 and 26-27 January 2004 for one full Saturn rotation (10.7 hr) at each epoch. We report here the first observation of an X-ray flare from Saturn's non-auroral (low-latitude) disk, which is seen in…
Since 2013, observations of Neptune with small telescopes have resulted in several detections of long-lived bright atmospheric features that have also been observed by large telescopes such as Keck II or Hubble. The combination of both…
The shape of the two gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, is determined primarily by their rotation rate, and interior density distribution. It is also affected by their zonal winds, causing an anomaly of O(10 km) at low latitudes. However,…
Many have have taken in hand to write a treatise on the Star of Bethlehem, particularly on Kepler's explanation as a stellar birth, triggered by Mars joining a great conjunction (a meeting of Jupiter and Saturn), as he observed it in…
The recent discovery of a staggering diversity of planets beyond the Solar System has brought with it a greatly expanded search space for habitable worlds. The Kepler exoplanet survey has revealed that most planets in our interstellar…
We provide measurements of the absolute reflectivity of Jupiter and Saturn along their central meridians in filters covering a wide range of visible and near-infrared wavelengths (from 0.38 to 1.7 $\mu$m) that are not often presented in the…
Remote sensing observations meet some limitations when used to study the bulk atmospheric composition of the giant planets of our solar system. A remarkable example of the superiority of in situ probe measurements is illustrated by the…
The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is the largest single dish telescope in the world focused on sub-millimeter astronomy - and it remains at the forefront of sub-millimeter discovery space. JCMT continues itspush for higher efficiency…
Giant planets are usually thought to form within a few tens of AU of their host stars, and hence it came as a surprise when we found what appeared to be a planetary mass (~0.008 Msun) companion around the 5 Myr-old solar mass star 1RXS…
Unexpected dynamic phenomena have surprised solar system observers in the past and have led to important discoveries about solar system workings. Observations at the initial stages of these events provide crucial information on the physical…