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Asteroid discoveries are essential for planetary-defense efforts aiming to prevent impacts with Earth, including the more frequent megaton explosions from decameter impactors. While large asteroids ($\geq$100 km) have remained in the main…
We study for the first time the possibility of probing long-range fifth forces utilizing asteroid astrometric data, via the fifth force-induced orbital precession. We examine nine Near-Earth Object (NEO) asteroids whose orbital trajectories…
Construction of the precise shape of an asteroid is critical for spacecraft operations as the gravitational potential is determined by spatial mass distribution. The typical approach to shape determination requires a prolonged mapping phase…
We present our search program for substellar companions using high-precision relative astronomy. Due to its orbital motion around the star, an unseen substellar companion would produce a periodic "wobble" of the host star, which is the…
Measurements of accretion rates onto planetary mass objects may distinguish between different planet formation mechanisms, which predict different accretion histories. In this Letter, we use \HST/WFC3 UVIS optical photometry to measure…
The amount of debris in orbit has increased significantly over the years. With the recent growth of interest in space exploration, conjunction assessment has become a central issue. One important metric to evaluate conjunction risk is the…
Orbit-determination programs find the orbit solution that best fits a set of observations by minimizing the RMS of the residuals of the fit. For near-Earth asteroids, the uncertainty of the orbit solution may be compatible with trajectories…
We present a performance analysis of the DiskMass Survey. The survey uses collisionless tracers in the form of disk stars to measure the surface-density of spiral disks, to provide an absolute calibration of the stellar mass-to-light ratio,…
High-Frequency (HF) radar is well suited to the surveillance of low-Earth-orbit space. For large targets, a small deployable HF radar is able to match the detection performance of much larger space surveillance radar systems operating at…
We present a method for calculating precise distances to asteroids using only two nights of data from a single location --- far too little for an orbit --- by exploiting the angular reflex motion of the asteroids due to Earth's axial…
Since the early 2000' years, the CubeSats have been growing and getting more and more "space" in the Space industry. Their short development schedule, low cost equipment and piggyback launches create a new way to access the space, provide…
This paper presents the development of an in situ measurement system known as the Debris Resistive Acoustic Grid Orbital Navy/NASA Sensor (DRAGONS). The DRAGONS system is designed to detect impacts caused by particles ranging from 50…
1998~KY$_{26}$ is a tiny near-Earth asteroid ($H=26.1$) discovered in 1998. It has been selected as the target of the Hayabusa2 extended mission, which will rendezvous with 1998 KY$_{26}$ in 2031. However, one of the most basic physical…
We present methodology and mission results from orbit determination of Planet Labs nanosatellites and differential-drag control of their relative motion. Orbit determination (OD) is required on Planet Labs satellites to accurately predict…
The impact of formation flying on interferometry is growing over the years for the potential performance it could offer. However, it is still an open field, and many studies are still required. This article presents the basic principles…
Infrared measurements of asteroids are crucial for the determination of physical and thermal properties of individual objects, and for the understanding of the small-body populations in the solar system as a whole. But standard radiometric…
Microlensing is one of the most powerful methods that can detect extrasolar planets and a future space-based survey with a high monitoring frequency is proposed to detect a large sample of Earth-mass planets. In this paper, we examine the…
Summary: In the past decade both scientists and laymen have probably heard at least once through the newspapers, TV and Internet that a new asteroid has been discovered with non-zero (sometimes "high") probability of collision with the…
Context: With no conclusive detection to date, the search for exomoons, satellites of planets orbiting other stars, remains a formidable challenge. Detecting these objects, compiling a population-level sample and constraining their…
This study aims at advancing mathematical and computational techniques for reconstructing the interior structure of a near earth asteroid (NEA) via Computed Radar Tomography (CRT). We introduce a far-field model for full-wave CRT and…