Related papers: Fitting Zodiacal Models
The extragalactic background light (EBL) is of fundamental importance both for understanding the entire process of galaxy evolution and for gamma-ray astronomy. However, the overall spectrum of the EBL between 0.1 and 1000 microns has never…
I derive the physical properties of 30 transiting extrasolar planetary systems using a homogeneous analysis of published data. The light curves are modelled with the JKTEBOP code, with attention paid to limb darkening and eccentricity. The…
The increasing sensitivity of cosmic microwave background (CMB) missions will require to significantly improve the accuracy in the subtraction of the various sources of Galactic foreground, from the most relevant components (synchrotron,…
Modern astrometry is based on angular measurements at the micro-arcsecond level. At this accuracy a fully general relativistic treatment of the data reduction is required. This paper concludes a series of articles dedicated to the problem…
Understanding the reasons of the cyclic variation of the total solar irradiance is one of the most challenging targets of modern astrophysics. These studies prove to be essential also for a more climatologic issue, associated to the global…
In addition to planets and other small bodies, stellar systems will likely also host exozodiacal dust, or exozodi. This warm dust primarily resides in or near the habitable zone of a star, and scatters stellar light in visible to NIR…
Planned astronomical observatories of the 2020s will be capable of obtaining reflected light photometry and spectroscopy of cool extrasolar giant planets. Here we explain that such data are valuable both for understanding the origin and…
From life on other planets to virtual classrooms this thesis spans a wide array of research topics all based on how we see other worlds. Our understanding of everything from moon phases, the planets in our Solar System, and exoplanet…
Trans-Neptunian objects and Centaurs are small solar system bodies that reside in the outer parts of the solar system. These objects present photometric behaviours that are influenced due to a change in their aspect angle. Using absolute…
The next generation of high-contrast imaging instruments will provide the first unresolved image of an extrasolar planet. While the emitted infrared light from the planet in thermal equilibrium should show almost no phase effect, the…
Exoplanetary science is a very active field of astronomy nowadays, with questions still opened such as how planetary systems form and evolve (occurrence, process), why such a diversity of exoplanets is observed (mass, radius, orbital…
The light deflection of one component of a binary system due to the gravitational field of the other component is investigated. While this relativistic effect has not been observed thus far, the question arises that whether this effect…
For exoplanet direct detection mission concepts such as Terrestrial Planet Finder or Exoplanet Probe, light from the exozodiacal dust tends to obscure any exoplanets present in the image. Data analysis methods to identify point sources…
Within the next few years, GAIA and several instruments aiming at imag- ing extrasolar planets will see first light. In parallel, low mass planets are being searched around red dwarfs which offer more favourable conditions, both for radial…
... A strict lower-limit flux for the evolving extragalactic background light (and in particular the cosmic infrared background) has been calculated up to redshift of 5. The computed flux is below the existing upper limits from direct…
Future telescopes will characterize rocky exoplanets in reflected light, revealing their albedo, which depends on surface, cloud, and atmospheric properties. Identifying these features is crucial for assessing habitability. We present…
The extragalactic background light (EBL) is one of the fundamental observational quantities in cosmology. All energy releases from resolved and unresolved extragalactic sources, and the light from any truly diffuse background, excluding the…
Several processes can cause the shape of an extrasolar giant planet's shadow, as viewed in transit, to depart from circular. In addition to rotational effects, cloud formation, non-homogenous haze production and movement, and dynamical…
A huge amount of good quality astrophysical data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing the today observed phase of accelerated expansion. This new observational trend is commonly addressed as Precision…
While recently discovered exotic new planet-types have both challenged our imaginations and broadened our knowledge of planetary system workings, perhaps the most compelling objective of exoplanet science is to detect and characterize…