Related papers: The MONS Star Trackers
During the last decade, our understanding of stellar physics and evolution has undergone a tremendous revolution thanks to asteroseismology. Space missions such as CoRoT, \kep, K2, and TESS have already been observing millions of stars…
Precise exoplanet characterization requires precise classification of exoplanet host stars. The masses of host stars are commonly estimated by comparing their spectra to those predicted by stellar evolution models. However,…
A breakthrough in exoplanet detections is foreseen with the unprecedented astrometric measurement capabilities offered by instrumentation aboard Gaia space observatory. Besides, astrometric discoveries of exoplanets are expected from the…
Spectroscopic follow-up of dozens of transiting planets has revealed the degree of alignment between the equators of stars and the orbits of the planets they host. Here we determine a method, applicable to spotted stars, that can reveal the…
Microlensing events are now regularly being detected by monitoring the flux of a large number of potential sources and measuring the combined magnification of the images. This phenomenon could also be detected directly from the…
Multiple low-Earth orbit satellite constellations, aimed at beaming broadband connectivity from space, are currently under active deployment. While such space-based Internet is set to augment, globally, today's terrestrial connectivity, and…
The body of photometric and astrometric data on stars in the Galaxy has been growing very fast in recent years (Hipparcos/Tycho, OGLE-3, 2-Mass, DENIS, UCAC2, SDSS, RAVE, Pan Starrs, Hermes, ...) and in two years ESA will launch the Gaia…
Precise and reliable measurements of the masses and radii of neutron stars with a variety of masses would provide valuable guidance for improving models of the properties of cold matter with densities above the saturation density of nuclear…
We propose using large Air Cerenkov Telescopes (ACT's) to search for optical, pulsed signals from extra-terrestrial intelligence. Such dishes collect tens of photons from a nanosecond-scale pulse of isotropic equivalent power of tens of…
We are conducting a spectroscopic monitoring of O and WN -type stars in our Galaxy. In this work, we summarize some of our first results related to the search for radial-velocity variations indicative of orbital motion.
Remote-sensing observations of Solar System objects with a space telescope offer a key method of understanding celestial bodies and contributing to planetary formation and evolution theories. The capabilities of Twinkle, a space telescope…
The impact of mega-constellations of satellites in low-Earth orbit during nighttime optical observations is assessed. Orbital geometry is used to calculate the impact of stellar occultations by satellites on the photometry of individual…
Scientific CMOS image sensors are a modern alternative for a typical CCD detectors, as they offer both low read-out noise, large sensitive area, and high frame rates. All these makes them promising devices for a modern wide-field sky…
Neutron monitors are a standard tool for high-precision continuous monitoring of galactic cosmic ray flux variations arising from variations in heliospheric conditions and solar activity for space weather applications. These measurements…
There has been tremendous progress in observing oscillations in solar-type stars. In a few short years we have moved from ambiguous detections to firm measurements. We briefly review the recent results, most of which have come from…
This paper presents the latest optical design for the MOONS triple-arm spectrographs. MOONS will be a Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph and will be installed on one of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large…
Polarimetry remains a largely unexploited technique in observational X-ray astronomy which could provide insight in the study of the strong gravity and magnetic fields at the core of the Constellation-X observational program. Adding a…
Natural (such as lunar) occultations have long been used to study sources on small angular scales, while coronographs have been used to study high contrast sources. We propose launching the Big Occulting Steerable Satellite (BOSS), a large…
The influence of new techniques on the discovery and characterization of pulsating variables has been enormous. In this paper, I will review the methods and results of a number of research programmes which have dramatically altered our…
The Earth Observation planning community has access to tools that can propagate orbits and compute coverage of Earth observing imagers with customizable shapes and orientation, model the expected Earth Reflectance at various bands, epochs…