Related papers: Properties of Planet-induced Deviations in the Ast…
An optimal maximum-likelihood technique for computing point-source image centroids from many, slightly offset, CCD frames is presented. The method is especially useful for measuring stellar proper motions from data taken with the Wide Field…
We present and discuss a polarimetric effect caused by a planet transiting the stellar disk thus breaking the symmetry of the light distribution and resulting in linear polarization of the partially eclipsed star. Estimates of this effect…
We propose that extrasolar asteroid belts can be detected through their gravitational microlensing signatures. Asteroid belt + star lens systems create so-called "pseudo-caustics", regions in the source plane where the magnification…
Planets emit thermal radiation and reflect incident light that they recieve from their host stars. As a planet orbits it's host star the photometric variations associated with these two effects produce very similar phase curves. If observed…
There is growing observational evidence for some kind of interaction between stars and close-in extrasolar giant planets. Shkolnik et al. reported variability in the chromospheric Ca H and K lines of HD 179949 and upsilon And that seemed to…
The fine precision of photometric data available from missions like Kepler provide researchers with the ability to measure changes in light on the order of tens of parts per million (ppm). This level of precision allows researchers to…
Weak gravitational lensing causes subtle changes in the apparent shapes of galaxies due to the bending of light by the gravity of foreground masses. By measuring the shapes of large numbers of galaxies (millions in recent surveys, up to…
The Sun and stars with low magnetic activity levels, become photometrically brighter when their activity increases. Magnetically more active stars display the opposite behaviour and get fainter when their activity increases. We reproduce…
Our proper acceleration with respect to the Cosmic Microwave Background results in a real-time change of the angular position of distant extragalactic sources. The cosmological component of this aberration drift signal, the non-inertial…
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…
Centroid positions of peaks identified in weak lensing mass maps often show offsets with respect to other means of identifying halo centres, like position of the brightest cluster galaxy or X-ray emission centroid. Here we study the effect…
Spectral-line displacements away from the wavelengths naively expected from the Doppler shift caused by stellar radial motion may originate as convective shifts (correlated velocity and brightness patterns in the photosphere), as…
Improved photometric sensitivity from space-based telescopes have enabled the detection of phase variations for a small sample of hot Jupiters. However, exoplanets in highly eccentric orbits present unique opportunities to study the effects…
The ultra-precise photometric space satellite MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of STars) will provide the first opportunity to measure the albedos and scattered light curves from known short-period extrasolar planets. Due to the…
We propose a method to detect exoplanets based on their host star's intensity centroid after it passes thru a vortex filter. Based on our calculations with planets in face-on orbits, exoplanets with relative proximity to their host stars…
We investigated the potential of polarimetric observations in the optical wavelength range for the detection of exomoons and the characterization of exoplanet-exomoon systems. Using the three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiative transfer code…
Motivated by debris disk studies, we investigate the gravitational microlensing of background starlight by a planetesimal disk around a foreground star. We use dynamical survival models to construct a plausible example of a planetesimal…
As a comet, asteroid or planet approaches its parent star, the orbit changes shape due to the curvature of spacetime. For comets in particular, the deviation at the pericentre may noticeably change their ephemerides and affect the dynamics…
We measure the astrometric shifts of the light centroids for the microlensing events in the OGLE-1 database. Of the 15 consistently detected events, 7 had significant shifts which we were able to measure with a fair degree of confidence.…
We investigate the effect of planetary rotation on the transit spectrum of an extrasolar giant planet. During ingress and egress, absorption features arising from the planet's atmosphere are Doppler shifted by of order the planet's…