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We present a new approach to measure the shapes of galaxies, a fundamental task in observational astronomy. This approach is based on the decomposition of a galaxy image into a series of orthogonal basis functions, or `shapelets'. Our…
Since 2008 we have run an observational program to accurately measure the characteristics of known exoplanet systems hosting close-in transiting giant planets, i.e. hot Jupiters. Our study is based on high-quality photometric follow-up…
The accuracy of astrometric observations conducted via a space-borne optical interferometer orbiting the Earth is expected to approach a few microarcseconds. Data processing of such extremely high-precision measurements requires access to a…
The high accuracy of modern space astrometry requires the use of General Relativity to model the propagation of stellar light through the gravitational field encountered from a source to a given observer inside the Solar System. In this…
Deflecting an asteroid from an Earth impact trajectory requires only small velocity changes, typically of the order of microns per second, if done many years ahead of time. For this, a highly precise method of determining the need,…
Observational astronomy has undergone a significant transformation driven by large-scale surveys, such as the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) Survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and the Gaia…
Astrometric jitter noise arises when starspots on a rotating stellar surface move in and out of view, shifting the photocenter. This noise may limit our ability to detect and weigh small, sub-Neptune-sized planets around active stars. By…
Radio astronomical observations have very poor signal to noise ratios, unlike in other disciplines. On the other hand, it is possible to observe the object of interest for long time intervals as well as using a wider bandwidth.…
We present a new procedure for photometric parallax estimation. The data for 1236 stars provide calibrations between the absolute magnitude offset from the Hyades main-sequence and the UV-excess for different (B-V)o colour-index intervals,…
Occultations, the covering up of one celestial body by another celestial body, have been used in astronomy for millennia to learn about the sun and moon. Since 2018, VERITAS has implemented a program to detect predicted asteroid…
The central supermassive black hole of the galaxy M87 is currently a target for precision spin measurement using high-resolution, horizon-scale imaging. Such observations aim to resolve the first lensed (${n}~{=}~{1}$) sub-image of the…
Using the adaptive optics facilities at the 200-in Hale and 10-m Keck II, we observed in the near infrared a sample of 12 binary and multiple stars and one open cluster. We used the near diffraction limited images of these systems to…
Orbital solutions for binary or multiple stellar systems that combine astrometry (e.g., position angles and angular separations) with spectroscopy (radial velocities) have important advantages over astrometric-only or spectroscopic-only…
The next generation of telescopes will acquire terabytes of image data on a nightly basis. Collectively, these large images will contain billions of interesting objects, which astronomers call sources. The astronomers' task is to construct…
The nature and physical properties of asteroids, in particular those orbiting in the near-Earth space, are of scientific interest and practical importance. Exoplanet surveys can be excellent resources to detect asteroids, both already known…
We present a novel automatic adaptive aperture photometry algorithm for measuring the total magnitudes of merging galaxies with irregular shapes. First, we use a morphological pattern recognition routine for identifying the shape of an…
Digital tracking enables telescopes to detect asteroids several times fainter than conventional techniques. We describe our optimized methodology to acquire, process, and interpret digital tracking observations, and we apply it to probe the…
Space debris is a major threat to the satellite infrastructure. A collision with even small particle, e.g. 1 cm of size, can cause a catastrophic event when the parent body, spacecraft or upper stage, will break up into hundreds of…
The calibration of ground based optical imaging data to photometric accuracy of 10 mmag over the full survey area and to color uniformity better than 5 mmag on the scale of the VIS focal plane is a key science requirement for the Euclid…
Transforming the instrumental photometry of ground-based telescopes into a calibrated physical flux in a well-defined passband is a major challenge in astronomy. Along with the intrinsic instrumental difference between telescopes sharing…