Related papers: Observable tests for the light-sail scenario of in…
Recent deep photometry of the dwarf spheroidal Ursa Major II's morphology, and spectroscopy of individual stars, have provided a number of new constraints on its properties. With a velocity dispersion $\sim$6 km s$^{-1}$, and under the…
We report the results of a comprehensive reanalysis of Ulysses observations of interstellar He atoms flowing through the solar system, the goal being to reassess the interstellar He flow vector and to search for evidence of variability in…
Dark matter pervades the Solar System, free-streaming at the halo's local Galactic orbital velocity and density. As these objects pass through the Solar system, they perturb gravitationally, and thus very weakly, all nearby inertial masses.…
With a new probabilistic technique for sampling interstellar object (ISO) orbits with high efficiency, we assess the observability of ISOs under a realistic cadence for the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time…
NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission has recently opened a new window on the interstellar medium (ISM) by imaging neutral atoms. One "bright" feature in the sky is the interstellar wind flowing into the solar system.…
We investigate the kinematics of the potential ultra-faint dwarf galaxy (UFD) UMa III/U1 using Bayesian inference to search for the signal of any potential intrinsic rotation. The magnitude of rotation is relevant to estimating the total…
Lightsails are promising spacecraft that can traverse interstellar distances within decades via radiation-pressure propulsion from high-power lasers. The envisioned missions crucially rely on the sail being confined within the propelling…
NASA has been considering a solar sail that would accelerate a craft to a high velocity (~ 14 AU/yr) by the time it reached 5 AU. Then the sail would be dropped and the craft would coast alone to deep space. We propose that the sail be…
Interstellar objects such as 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov offer a unique window into the formation and evolution of other star systems, yet the tracking and analysis of their trajectories remain limited to specialized research institutions.…
Context. Theories of the formation and evolution of small bodies in planetary systems predict that they may escape into interstellar space at any time. After having characterized just two such interlopers -1I/2017 U1 (Oumuamua) and…
Most stars form in binaries, and both stars may grow by accreting material from a circumbinary disc onto their personal discs. We suspect that in many cases a wide molecular wind will envelope a collimated atomic jet emanating from close to…
High-resolution IRAS maps are used to search for the presence of stellar-wind bow-shocks around high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). Their high space velocities, recently confirmed with Hipparcos observations, combined with their strong…
We present an empirical dynamical model of the local interstellar medium based on 270 radial-velocity measurements for 157 sight lines toward nearby stars. Physical-parameter measurements (i.e., temperature, turbulent velocity, depletions)…
The observation of interstellar objects 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov suggests the existence of a larger population of smaller projectiles that impact our planet with unbound orbits. We analyze an asteroidal grazing meteor (FH1) recorded by…
We present CO(2-1), $^{13}$CO(2-1), CO(6-5), CO(7-6), and SO(6$_5-5_4$) line observations made with the {\it IRAM 30 m} and {\it APEX} radiotelescopes and the {\it Submillimeter Array} toward the highly collimated and extended southwest…
A small number of young stellar objects show signs of a halo-like structure of optically thin dust. This halo or torus is located within a few AU of the star, but its origin has not yet been understood. A dynamically excited cloud of…
We conduct a detailed case-study of the interstellar shell near the high-mass X-ray binary, Cygnus X-1. We present new WIYN optical spectroscopic and Chandra X-ray observations of this region, which we compare with detailed MAPPINGS III…
In 2012, Voyager 1 became the first in situ probe of the very local interstellar medium. The Voyager 1 Plasma Wave System has given point estimates of the plasma density spanning about 30 astronomical units (au) of interstellar space,…
Transits of hot Jupiters in X-rays and the ultraviolet have been shown to be both deeper and more variable than the corresponding optical transits. This variability has been attributed to hot Jupiters having extended atmospheres at these…
When a pulsar is moving through a partially ionized medium, a fraction of neutral Hydrogen atoms penetrate inside the pulsar wind and can be photo-ionized by the nebula UV radiation. The resulting protons remains attached to the magnetic…