Related papers: Intercepting Interstellar Objects
The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), with its launch date planned for 2005, has as its goal astrometry with ~ 1 micro-arcsecond accuracy for stars as faint as 20th mag. If the SIM lives to expectations it can be used to measure…
The previous decade saw the discovery of the first four known interstellar objects due to advances in astronomical viewing equipment. Future sky surveys with greater sensitivity will allow for more frequent detections of such objects,…
High power Earth and orbital-based directed energy (DE) systems pose a potential hazard to Earth orbiting spacecraft. The use of very high power, large aperture DE systems to propel spacecraft is being pursued as the only known, feasible…
Eddington is a space mission for extrasolar planet finding and for asteroseismic observations. It has been selected by ESA as an F2/F3 reserve mission with a potential implementation in 2008-13. Here we describe Eddington's capabilities to…
This paper explicates the concept of an Intermediate Point (IP), its incorporation as a node along an interplanetary trajectory, and how it permits the determination and optimization of trajectories to interstellar objects (ISOs). IPs can…
We study an interstellar signaling scheme which was originally proposed by Seto (2019) and efficiently links intentional transmitters to ETI searchers through a conspicuous astronomical burst, without prior communication. Based on the…
We present a review of the literature on the subject of a possible collision between the Earthand a meteorite or comet. We emphasize the global effects when sufficient energy is involved.We propose several types of human actions adapted to…
Planetesimal formation is a common by-product of the star formation process. Taking the dynamical history of the Solar system as a guideline -- in which the planetesimal belts were heavily depleted due to graviational perburbation with the…
This is a White Paper in support of the mission concept of the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT), proposed as a medium-sized ESA mission. We discuss the potential of LOFT for the study of thermonuclear X-ray bursts on accreting…
We investigate the trapping of interstellar objects during the early stages of star and planet formation. Our results show a very wide range of possible values that will be narrowed down as the population of interstellar objects becomes…
The space mission LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), scheduled for launch in 2035, aims to detect gravitational wave (GW) signals in the milli-Hz band. In the context of ESA Voyage 2050 Call for new mission concepts, other frequency…
The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) will make precise astrometric measurements that can be used to detect planets around nearby stars. Since observational time will be extremely valuable, it is important to consider how the choice of the…
PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope is a proposed 2.5 m optical/infrared telescope to be located at DomeC on the Antarctic plateau. The atmospheric conditions at Dome C deliver a high sensitivity, high…
PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) is an ESA M-class mission to be launched by the end of 2026 to discover and characterize transiting planets around bright and nearby stars, and in particular habitable rocky planets…
Two decades ago, empirical evidence concerning the existence and frequency of planets around stars, other than our own, was absent. Since this time, the detection of extrasolar planets from Jupiter-sized to most recently Earth-sized worlds…
Amateur astronomers can make useful contributions to the study of comets. They add temporal coverage and multi-scale observations which can aid the study of fast-changing, and large-scale comet features. We document and review the amateur…
CubeSats offer a flexible and low-cost option to increase the scientific and technological return of small-body exploration missions. ESA's Hera mission, the European component of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA)…
Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope (GEST) was proposed for a discovery mission to search for microlensing terrestrial planets toward the Galactic bulge and also Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) that are believed to hold vital information of the…
The idea of finding extrasolar planets (ESPs) through observations of drops in stellar brightness due to transiting objects has been around for decades. It has only been in the last ten years, however, that any serious attempts to find ESPs…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is optimized for observations in the near and mid infrared and will provide essential observations for targets that cannot be conducted from the ground or other missions during its lifetime. The state…