Related papers: Micro-arcsecond light bending by Jupiter
We use detailed numerical simulations and the $\upsilon$ Andromedae, planetary system as a template to evaluate the capability of the ESA Cornerstone Mission GAIA in detecting and measuring multiple planets around solar-type stars in the…
The Astrometric Gravitation Probe mission is a modern version of the 1919 Dyson-Eddington-Davidson experiment, based on a space-borne telescope with a permanent built-in eclipse, provided by a coronagraphic system. The expected improvement…
The formation of giant planets is best studied through direct imaging by observing planets both during and after formation. Giant planets are expected to form either by core accretion, which is typically associated with low initial entropy…
Gaia's astrometric solution aims to determine at least five parameters for each star, together with appropriate estimates of their uncertainties and correlations. This requires at least five distinct observations per star. In the early data…
We demonstrate a new way of studying interplanetary magnetic field -- Ground State Alignment (GSA). Instead of sending thousands of space probes, GSA allows magnetic mapping with any ground telescope facilities equipped with…
Astrometric microlensing can be used to make precise measurements of the masses of lens stars that are independent of their assumed internal physics. Such direct mass measurements, obtained purely by observing the gravitational effects of…
Due to dramatic improvements in the precision of astrometric measurements, the observation of light centroid shifts in observed stars due to intervening massive compact objects (`astrometric microlensing') will become possible in the near…
Recently it has been shown that despite previous claims the cosmological constant affects light bending. In the present article we study light bending and the advance of Mercury's perihelion in the context of the Newtonian limit of…
Detection and orbit determination for thousands of planets with periods up to about 40 years would be obtained by astrometry from two Gaia-like missions, results which cannot be obtained by any other mission, planned or proposed. A billion…
Absolute astrometry with Gaia is expected to detect and characterize the orbits of thousands of exoplanets in the coming years. A tool, GaiaPMEX, was recently developed to characterize multiple systems based on Gaia-only data, and, when…
We perform observational tests of modified gravity on cosmological scales following model-dependent and model-independent approaches using the latest astronomical observations, including measurements of the local Hubble constant, cosmic…
Astrometric observations of microlensing events can be used to obtain important information about lenses. During these events, the shift of the position of the multiple image centroid with respect to the source star location can be…
We consider the bending of light around a compact astrophysical object with both the electric field and the magnetic field in Einstein-Born-Infeld theory. From the null geodesic of a light ray passing a massive object with electric charge…
During the last 25 years, hundreds of binary stars and planets have been discovered towards the Galactic Bulge by microlensing surveys. Thanks to a new generation of large-sky surveys, it is now possible to regularly detect microlensing…
Microlensing is able to reveal multiple body systems located several kilo-parsec away from the Earth. Since it does not require the measurement of light from the lens, microlensing is sensitive to a range of objects from free-floating…
We investigate possible a-priori "imprinting" of general relativity itself on spaceraft-based tests of it. We deal with some performed or proposed time-delay ranging experiments in the Sun's gravitational field. The "imprint" of general…
In the context of the ESA M5 (medium mission) call we proposed a new satellite mission, Theia, based on relative astrometry and extreme precision to study the motion of very faint objects in the Universe. Theia is primarily designed to…
As the most ancient branch of astronomy, astrometry has been developed for thousands of years. However, it has only recently become possible to utilize astrometry for the detection of exoplanets. Gaia, an astrometric surveyor of 1 billion…
Due to its relatively large eccentricity and proximity to the Sun, Mercury's orbital motion provides one of the best solar-system tests of relativistic gravity. We emphasize the number of feasible relativistic gravity tests that can be…
Motivated by the possibility that a coronagraph will be put on WFIRST/AFTA, we explore the direct detectability of extrasolar giant planets (EGPs) in the optical. We quantify a planet's detectability by the fraction of its orbit for which…