Related papers: Evolution of INPOP planetary ephemerides and Bepi-…
The perihelion advance of the orbit of Mercury has long been one of the observational cornerstones for testing General Relativity (G.R.). The main goal of this paper is to discuss how, presently, observational and theoretical constraints…
BEBOP is a radial-velocity survey that monitors a sample of single-lined eclipsing binaries, in search of circumbinary planets by using high-resolution spectrographs. Here, we describe and test the methods we use to identify planetary…
This paper discusses the latest progress in the development of GRAPE (Gamma-Ray Polarimeter Experiment), a hard X-ray Compton Polarimeter. The purpose of GRAPE is to measure the polarization of hard X-rays in the 50-300 keV energy range. We…
The high precision of the latest version of the planetary ephemeris EPM2011 enables one to explore more accurately a variety of small effects in the solar system. The processing of about 678 thousand of position observations of planets and…
Occultations are windows of opportunity to indirectly peek into the dayside atmosphere of exoplanets. High-precision transit events provide information on the spin-orbit alignment of exoplanets around fast-rotating hosts. We aim to…
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission, launched on 20 October 2018, is currently in cruise toward Mercury. The Mercury Orbiter Radio-science Experiment (MORE), one of the 16 experiments of the mission, will exploit range and range-rate…
We analytically calculate the time series for the perturbations $\Delta\rho(t),~\Delta\dot\rho(t)$ induced by a general disturbing acceleration $\boldsymbol{A}$ on the mutual range $\rho$ and range-rate $\dot\rho$ of two test particles…
The increasing precision of spacecraft radiometric tracking data experienced in the last number of years, coupled with the huge amount of data collected and the long baselines of the available datasets, has made the direct observation of…
The Hermean average perihelion rate $\dot\omega^\mathrm{2PN}$, calculated to the second post-Newtonian (2PN) order with the Gauss perturbing equations and the osculating Keplerian orbital elements, ranges from $-18$ to $-4$ microarcseconds…
The dynamics of the solar radiative interior are still poorly constrained by comparison to the convective zone. This disparity is even more marked when we attempt to derive meaningful temporal variations. Many data sets contain a small…
The obliquity of a terrestrial planet is an important clue about its formation and critical to its climate. Previous studies using simulated photometry of Earth show that continuous observations over most of a planet's orbit can be inverted…
The recent launch of Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo opened a brief window in which these two spacecraft were positioned in a constellation that allows for the detailed sampling of any Earth-directed CMEs. Fortunately, two such events…
The possibility of measuring the post-Newtonian gravitoelectric correction to the orbital period of a test particle freely orbiting a spherically symmetric mass in the Solar System is analyzed. It should be possible, in principle, to detect…
The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Solar Orbiter missions are designed to make groundbreaking observations of the Sun and interplanetary space within this decade. We show that a particularly interesting in situ observation of an…
As an extension of a previous work in which perihelion advances are considered only and as an attempt to find more stringent constraints on its parameters, we investigate effects on astronomical observation and experiments conducted in the…
We describe here how planetary ephemerides are built in the framework of General Relativity and how they can be used to test alternative theories. We focus on the definition of the reference frame (space and time) in which the planetary…
Planetary ephemerides are a very powerful tool to constrain deviations from the theory of General Relativity using orbital dynamics. The effective field theory framework called the Standard-Model Extension (SME) has been developed in order…
We analytically calculate some orbital effects induced by the Lorentz-invariance/momentum-conservation PPN parameter $\alpha_3$ in a gravitationally bound binary system made of a compact primary orbited by a test particle. We neither…
Recent and upcoming stabilized spectrographs are pushing the frontier for Doppler spectroscopy to detect and characterize low-mass planets. Specifications for these instruments are so impressive that intrinsic stellar variability is…
The Gamma-RAy Polarimeter Experiment (GRAPE) is a concept for an astronomical hard X-ray Compton polarimeter operating in the 50 - 500 keV energy band. The instrument has been optimized for wide-field polarization measurements of transient…