Related papers: The OSER project
In this paper we present a novel method to identify and characterize stellar clusters deeply embedded in a dark molecular cloud. The method is based on measuring stellar surface density in wide-field infrared images using star counting…
Microlensing and occultation are generally studied in the geometric optics limit. However, diffraction may be important when recently discovered Kuiper-Belt objects (KBOs) occult distant stars. In particular the effects of diffraction…
About 30-50% of the baryons in the local Universe are unaccounted for and are likely in a hot phase, 10^5.5-10^8 K. A hot halo (10^6.3 K) is detected around the Milky Way through the O VII and O VIII resonance absorption and emission lines…
The overarching goal of planetary astronomy is to deduce how the present collection of objects found in our Solar System were formed from the original material present in the proto-solar nebula. As over two hundred exo-planetary systems are…
It has recently been argued that the unidentified SCUBA objects (USOs) are a thick disk population of free-floating dense, compact galactic gas clumps at a temperature of about 7 K. The characteristic mass scale is constrained to be on the…
Context. Centaurs are icy objects in transition between the transneptunian region and the inner solar system, orbiting the Sun in the giant planet region. Some Centaurs display cometary activity, which cannot be sustained by the sublimation…
The detection of laser radiation originating from space is a positive indicator of Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (ETI). Thus far the optical search for ETI (OSETI) has looked for enhanced brightness in the form of either narrow-band…
(abridged) Star formation in the outer Galaxy, i.e., outside of the Solar circle, has been lightly studied in part due to low CO brightness of molecular clouds linked with the negative metallicity gradient. Recent infrared surveys provide…
We present here the results from an extensive scintillation study of twenty pulsars in the dispersion measure (DM) range 3 - 35 pc cm^-3 carried out using the Ooty Radio Telescope, to investigate the distribution of ionized material in the…
SCORCH (Simulations and Constructions of the Reionization of Cosmic Hydrogen) is a new project to study the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). In this first paper, we probe the connection between observed high-redshift galaxies and simulated dark…
The EROS microlensing survey has monitored nearly 100 million stars for seven years, to search for halo brown dwarfs and compact objects in the Galactic disk. In this paper, we review the various EROS observation programs and the…
Interstellar scintillation can be used to probe transverse sizes of radio sources on scales inaccessible to the nominal resolution of any terrestrial telescope, e.g. $\lesssim 10^{-6}$ arc sec. Methodology is presented that exploits this…
The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) is one of the most productive and influential photometric sky surveys in the history of observational astronomy. Originally designed to detect dark matter through gravitational…
While it is possible to estimate the dark matter density at the Sun distance from the galactic center, this does not give information on actual dark matter density in the Solar system. There can be considerable local enhancement of dark…
The search for planets orbiting other stars has recently expanded to include stars from galaxies outside the Milky Way. With the TESS and Gaia surveys, photometric and kinematic information can be combined to identify transiting planet…
Roughly 25% of the optical extragalactic sky is obscured by the dust and stars of our Milky Way. Dynamically important structures might still lie hidden in this zone. Various surveys are presently being employed to uncover the galaxy…
The University of Oxford has started the design and development of the new experiment ADLER (Airborne Detector for Low Energy Rays). This apparatus will measure the cosmic-ray muon flux at an altitude of 10 - 13km. The detector should be…
Using the weak gravitational lensing data from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC survey), we study the potential of different stellar mass estimates in tracing halo mass. We consider galaxies with $\log…
We discuss the possibility of mapping interstellar clouds at unprecedentedly high spatial resolution by means of near-IR imaging of their scattered light. We calculate the scattering of the interstellar radiation field by a cloud model…
EROS has been monitoring few million stars in the Magellanic clouds, as well as toward the Galactic bulge and spiral arms since 1996, to search for microlensing events. In this paper, we present briefly the EROS setup and scientific program…