Related papers: (523599) 2003 RM: The asteroid that wanted to be a…
Between 2010 and 2017 we have collected new optical and radar observations of the potentially hazardous asteroid (2102)~Tantalus from the ESO NTT and Danish telescopes at the La Silla Observatory and from the Arecibo planetary radar. The…
We report Arecibo S-band (2380 MHz; 12.6 cm) radar observations of near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon during the December 2017 apparition when Phaethon passed within 0.07 au of Earth. Radar images with a resolution of 75 m per pixel reveal…
The near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon is an intriguing object: its perihelion is at only 0.14 au and is associated with the Geminid meteor stream. We aim to use all available disk-integrated optical data to derive a reliable convex shape…
The third macroscopic interstellar object detected in the solar system recently passed through perihelion, with the best-fitting models of its trajectory now featuring non-gravitational accelerations. We assess how much mass loss is…
High-resolution spectroscopy of U Gem was obtained during quiescence. We did not find a hot spot or gas stream around the outer boundaries of the accretion disk. Instead, we detected a strong narrow emission near the location of the…
The young A0V star HR 4796A is host to a bright and narrow ring of dust, thought to originate in collisions between planetesimals within a belt analogous to the Solar System's Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. Here we present high spatial resolution…
Near-Earth asteroid 162173 (1999 JU3) is a potential target of two asteroid sample return missions, not only because of its accessibility but also because of the first C-type asteroid for exploration missions. The lightcurve-related…
In recent years spiral structures have been seen in scattered light observations and signs of vortices in millimeter images of protoplanetary disks, both probably linked with the presence of planets. We present ALMA Band 7 (335 GHz or 0.89…
[abridged] We present new scattered light and millimeter observations of the protoplanetary disk around LkH$\alpha\,330$, using SPHERE/VLT and ALMA, respectively. The scattered-light SPHERE observations reveal an asymmetric ring at around…
We report initial observations aimed at the characterization of a third interstellar object. This object, 3I/ATLAS or C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), was discovered on 2025 July 1 UT and has an orbital eccentricity of $e\sim6.1$, perihelion of $q\sim…
The origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs) is still a mystery. One model proposed to interpret the only known repeating object, FRB 121102, is that the radio emission is generated from asteroids colliding with a highly magnetized neutron star…
Celestial observations often exhibit inexplicable planetary dependencies when the timing of an observable is projected onto planetary heliocentric positions. This is possible only for incident, non-relativistic streams. Notably, the…
The plausibility of an unseen planet in the outer solar system, and the expected orbit and mass of such a planet, have long been a topic of inquiry and debate. We calculate the long-term orbital stability of distant TNOs, which allows us to…
Motivated by the nonlinear star formation efficiency found in recent numerical simulations by a number of workers, we perform high-resolution adaptive mesh refinement simulations of star formation in self-gravitating turbulently driven gas.…
[Context] Recent detections of disks around young high-mass stars support the idea of massive star formation through accretion rather than coalescence, but the detailed kinematics in the equatorial region of the disk candidates is not well…
We report on observations of near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD with the Spitzer Space Telescope. We have spent 19.9 h of observing time with channel 2 (4.5 {\mu}m) of the Infrared Array Camera and detected the target within the 2{\sigma}…
We place the first constraints on the obliquity of a planetary-mass companion (PMC) outside of the Solar System. Our target is the directly imaged system 2MASS J01225093-2439505 (2M0122), which consists of a 120 Myr 0.4 M_sun star hosting a…
WD 1145+017 was observed from 2015 November to 2016 July for the purpose of characterizing transit behavior of the white dwarf by dust clouds thought to be produced by fragments of an asteroid in close orbit with the star. Fortuitously,…
We present OSIRIS/NAC observations of decimetre-sized, likely ice-containing aggregates ejected from a confined region on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The images were obtained in January 2016 when the comet was at 2 AU…
Many past studies of cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been limited because of the large distance to typical GRBs, resulting in faint afterglows. There has long been a recognition that a nearby GRB would shed light on the origin of…