Related papers: A Targeted Search for Main Belt Comets
This work aims to detect and classify stellar flares and potential stellar coronal mass ejection (CME) signatures in optical spectra provided by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release 14. The sample is constrained to all F, G, K,…
Low-albedo, hydrated objects dominate the list of the largest asteroids. These objects have varied spectral shapes in the 3-$\mu$m region, where diagnostic absorptions due to volatile species are found. Dawn's visit to Ceres has extended…
We present the determination of the geometric R-band albedos of two main-belt comet nuclei based on data from the Spitzer Space Telescope and a number of ground-based optical facilities. For 133P/Elst-Pizarro, we find an albedo of…
The sub-parsec masing disk recently found to be orbiting a central mass of $\sim3.6\times10^7$~\msun\ in the Seyfert/LINER galaxy NGC~4258 provides the most compelling evidence to date for the existence of a massive black hole in the…
The discovery of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov offered the unique opportunity to obtain a detailed analysis of an object coming from another planetary system, and leaving behind material in our interplanetary space. We continuously observed…
[ABRIDGED] We have carried out a systematic search for close supermassive black hole binaries among z < 0.7 SDSS quasars Such binaries are predicted by models of supermassive black hole and host galaxy co-evolution, therefore their census…
We present the first measurement of the mass of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the nearby double-barred spiral galaxy NGC 3504 as part of the Measuring Black Holes Below the Milky Way ($M_{\star}$) mass galaxies (MBHBM$_{\star}$)…
There has been suggestive evidence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs; 10^{3-5} M_sun) existing in some globular clusters (GCs) and dwarf galaxies, but IMBHs as a population remain elusive. As a main-sequence star passes too close by…
We present observations and an interpretative model of the dust environment of Main-Belt Comet P/2010 F5 (Gibbs). The narrow dust trails observed can be interpreted unequivocally as an impulsive event that took place around 2011 July 1st…
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be a ground-based, optical, all-sky, rapid cadence survey project with tremendous potential for discovering and characterizing asteroids. With LSST's large 6.5m diameter primary mirror, a wide…
A unique short-period Mercury-size Kepler exoplanet candidate KIC012557548b has been discovered recently by Rappaport et al. (2012). This object is a transiting disintegrating exoplanet with a circum-planetary material - comet-like tail.…
The historical microlensing surveys MACHO, EROS, MOA and OGLE (hereafter summarized in the MEMO acronym) have searched for microlensing toward the LMC for a total duration of 27 years. We have studied the potential of joining all databases…
We present long-slit HST/STIS measurements of the ionized-gas kinematics in the nucleus of three disk galaxies, namely NGC 2179, NGC 4343, NGC 4435. The sample galaxies have been selected on the basis of their ground-based spectroscopy, for…
We report the detection of a black hole (NGC 1850 BH1) in the $\sim$100 Myr-old massive cluster NGC~1850 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is in a binary system with a main-sequence turn-off star (4.9 $\pm$ 0.4 M${_\odot}$), which is…
Measurements of the microlensing optical depth and event rate toward the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) can be used to probe the distribution and mass function of compact objects in the direction toward that galaxy - in the Milky Way disk,…
In order to understand the formation of massive OB stars, we report a multi-wavelength observational study of a giant molecular cloud hosting the S147/S153 complex (size ~90 pc X 50 pc). The selected complex is located in the Perseus arm,…
We present observations using the Baade Magellan and Canada-France-Hawaii telescopes showing that main-belt comet 324P/La Sagra, formerly known as P/2010 R2, has become active again for the first time since originally observed to be active…
We use numerical simulations to investigate the orbital characteristics of tidal debris from satellites whose orbits are dragged into the plane of galactic disks by dynamical friction before disruption. We find that these satellites may…
Understanding the physical mechanism behind the formation of a co-rotating thin plane of satellite galaxies, like the one observed around the Milky Way (MW), has been challenging. The perturbations induced by a massive satellite galaxy,…
Context. Mars-crossing asteroids (MCs) are a dynamically unstable group between the main belt and the near-Earth populations. Characterising the physical properties of a large sample of MCs can help to understand the original sources of…