Related papers: A Distant Stellar Companion in the Upsilon Androme…
We have combined optical and NIR photometry from Pan-STARRS 1 and UKIDSS to search the young (5-10 Myr) star-forming region of Upper Scorpius for wide (~400-4000 AU) substellar companions down to ~5 Mjup. Our search is ~4mag deeper than…
Multi-planetary systems are prevalent in our Galaxy. The long-term stability of such systems may be disrupted if a distant inclined companion excites the eccentricity and inclination of the inner planets via the eccentric Kozai-Lidov…
As of August 2008, over 30 multiple exoplanet systems are known, and 28% of stars with planets show significant evidence of a second companion. I briefly review these 30 systems individually, broadly grouping them into five categories: 1)…
Using the Yale stellar evolution code, we have calculated theoretical models for nearby stars with planetary-mass companions in short-period nearly circular orbits: 51 Pegasi, Tau Bootis, Upsilon Andromedae, Rho Cancri, and Rho Coronae…
Using archival imaging from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, we investigate the stellar populations of the Local Group dwarf spheroidal Andromeda V - a companion satellite galaxy of M31. The…
Understanding the relationship between long-period giant planets and multiple smaller short-period planets is critical for formulating a complete picture of planet formation. This work characterizes three such systems. We present Kepler-65,…
The highly anisotropic distribution and apparent alignment of the Galactic satellites in polar great planes begs the question how common such distributions are. The satellite system of M31 is the only nearby system for which we currently…
The study of extra-solar planetary systems has emerged as a new discipline of observational astronomy in the past few years with the discovery of a number of extra-solar planets. The properties of most of these extra-solar planets were not…
It has recently been suggested that the eclipsing polar HU Aquarii is host to at least two giant planets. We have performed highly detailed dynamical analysis of the orbits of those planets and show that the proposed system is highly…
With Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor astrometry and published and previously unpublished radial velocity measures we explore the exoplanetary system mu Arae. Our modeling of the radial velocities results in improved orbital…
It is well established that certain detached eclipsing binary stars exhibit apsidal motions whose value is in disagreement with with calculated deviations from Keplerian motion based on tidal effects and the general theory of relativity.…
We report the discovery of a low dimensional dynamical system in a 5.5 hr Hubble Space Telescope High Speed Photometer observation of a rapidly oscillating star. The topological description of the phase space orbits is given, as well as a…
This work presents an interferometric study of the massive-binary fraction in the Orion Trapezium Cluster with the recently comissioned GRAVITY instrument. We observe a total of 16 stars of mainly OB spectral type. We find three previously…
Stellar multiplicity is a key aspect of exoplanet diversity, as the presence of more than one star in a planetary system can have both devastating and positive effects on its formation and evolution. In this paper, we present the results of…
Of the roughly 3000 neutron stars known, only a handful have sub-stellar companions. The most famous of these are the low-mass planets around the millisecond pulsar B1257+12. New evidence indicates that observational biases could still hide…
The possible existence of additional long-period planetary-mass objects in the extrasolar planetary systems 47 UMa and 14 Her is investigated. We combine all available radial-velocity data on these stars, spanning up to 18 years. For the 47…
The Andromeda galaxy is observed to have a system of two large dwarf ellipticals and ~13 smaller satellite galaxies that are currently co-rotating in a thin plane, in addition to 2 counter-rotating satellite galaxies. We explored the…
We report the detection of a faint stellar companion to the famous nearby A5V star Alcor (80 UMa). The companion has M-band ($\lambda$ = 4.8 $\mu$m) magnitude 8.8 and projected separation 1".11 (28 AU) from Alcor. The companion is most…
We discuss the observed multiplicity of massive stars and implications on theories of massive star formation. After a short summary of the literature on massive star multiplicity, we focus on the O- and B-type stars in the Orion Nebula…
We present results of the CFHT adaptive optics search for companions of a homogeneous group of contact binary stars, as a contribution to our attempts to prove a hypothesis that these binaries require a third star to become so close as…