Related papers: Optimum Location to Intercept Interstellar Objects…
The minimum orbital intersection distance is used as a measure to assess potential close approaches and collision risks between astronomical objects. Methods to calculate this quantity have been proposed in several previous publications.…
The extreme conditions found near black holes and neutron stars provide a unique opportunity for testing physical theories. Observations of both types of compact objects can be used to probe regions of strong gravity, allowing for tests of…
We analyze three years (1998-2000) of OGLE observations of microlensing events to place limits on the abundance of planets with a planet-to-star mass ratio $q=10^{-3}$ at distances $\sim 1-4$AU from their host stars, i.e. `cool Jupiters'.…
`Oumuamua and Borisov were the first two interstellar objects confirmed in the Solar system. The upcoming commencement of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space of Time (LSST) will enhance greatly the discovery rate of…
The localization quality of automatic object detectors is typically evaluated by the Intersection over Union (IoU) score. In this work, we show that humans have a different view on localization quality. To evaluate this, we conduct a survey…
Microlensing is the most promising method to study the statistical frequency of extra-solar planets orbiting typical (random) stars in the Milky Way, even those several kiloparsecs from Earth. The lensing zone corresponds to orbital…
The longitudes of perihelia and orbital poles of the solar system's dozen or so most remote detected objects are clustered in a manner inconsistent with that of a random sample of uniformly distributed orbits. While small number statistics…
Digital co-addition of astronomical images is a common technique for increasing signal-to-noise and image depth. A modification of this simple technique has been applied to the detection of minor bodies in the Solar System: first stationary…
A novel control & software architecture using ROS C++ is introduced for object interception by a UAV with a mounted depth camera and no external aid. Existing work in trajectory prediction focused on the use of off-board tools like motion…
By means of numerical experiments we explore the application of interferometry to the detection and characterization of abundance spots in chemically peculiar (CP) stars using the brightest star eps~Uma as a case study. We find that the…
We present an analysis of surveying the inner Solar System for objects that may pose some threat to the Earth. Most of the analysis is based on understanding the capability provided by Sentinel, a concept for an infrared space-based…
The appearance of interstellar objects (ISOs) in the Solar System -- and specifically the arrival of 1I/'Oumuamua -- points to a significant number density of free-floating bodies in the solar neighborhood. We review the details of…
Astrometry is one of the oldest branches of astronomy which measures the position, the proper motion and parallax of celestial objects. Following the Hipparcos and Gaia missions that have measured several billions of them using global…
Studies of the photometric variability of astronomical sources from ground-based telescopes must overcome atmospheric extinction effects. Differential photometry by reference to an ensemble of reference stars which closely match the target…
Satellite conjunctions involving "near misses" of space objects are becoming increasingly likely. One approach to risk analysis for them involves the computation of the collision probability, but this has been regarded as having some…
The Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS$\odot$IS) energetic particle instrument suite on Parker Solar Probe is dedicated to measuring energetic ions and electrons in the near-Sun environment. It includes a half-sky-viewing…
The Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission is a NASA observatory designed to discover and characterize near-Earth asteroids and comets. The mission's primary objective is to find the majority of objects large enough to cause severe…
The Robo-AO \textit{Kepler} Planetary Candidate Survey is observing every \textit{Kepler} planet candidate host star with laser adaptive optics imaging to search for blended nearby stars, which may be physically associated companions and/or…
Interest in the use of the low earth orbit (LEO) in space - from $160 \text{ km}$ to $2000 \text{ km}$ - has skyrocketed; this is evident by the fact that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has partnered with various…
Observations with interferometric gravitational-wave detectors result in probability sky maps that are multimodal and spread over 10-100 deg^2. We present a scheme for maximizing the probability of imaging optical counterparts to…