Related papers: Exploring the Galaxy using space probes
The field of astrobiology has made huge strides in understanding the habitable zones around stars (Stellar Habitable Zones) where life can begin, sustain its existence and evolve into complex forms. A few studies have extended this idea by…
Galaxy groups and clusters are the main tools used to test cosmological models and to study the environmental effect of galaxy formation. This work provides a catalogue of galaxy groups and clusters, as well as potentially merging systems…
The study of Galactic diffuse $\gamma$ radiation combined with the knowledge of the distribution of the molecular hydrogen in the Galaxy offers a unique tool to probe the cosmic ray flux in the Galaxy. A methodology to study the level of…
We present the survey strategy and early results of the "Satellites Around Galactic Analogs" (SAGA) Survey. The SAGA Survey's goal is to measure the distribution of satellite galaxies around 100 systems analogous to the Milky Way down to…
The study of strong-lensing systems conventionally involves constructing a mass distribution that can reproduce the observed multiply-imaging properties. Such mass reconstructions are generically non-unique. Here, we present an alternative…
We present an analytic model to estimate the total number of rocky or icy objects that could be captured by planetary systems within the Milky Way galaxy and result in panspermia should they harbor life. We estimate the capture rate of…
The discovery of an increasing number of Jupiter-like planets in orbit around other stars (or extra-solar planets) is a promising first step toward the search for Life in the Universe. We review all aspects of the question: - definition of…
Dwarf galaxies make ideal laboratories to test galaxy evolution paradigms and cosmological models. Detailed studies of dwarfs across the spectrum allow us to gauge the efficacy of astrophysical processes at play in the lowest mass halos…
Using our rich observations within the Milky Way to better understand galaxy evolution requires understanding what the Milky Way looks like "as a galaxy" -- that is, its "true" shape and abundance profiles (unskewed by observational…
We present our models of the effect of binaries on high-resolution spectroscopic surveys. We want to determine how many binary stars will be observed, whether unresolved binaries will contaminate measurements of chemical abundances, and how…
In this article an analysis of the fundamentals used to search for extraterrestrial artificial signals in the galaxy, which have been developing for more than five decades, is presented. It is shown that the key factor for the success of…
Galaxy cluster surveys offer great promise for measuring cosmological parameters, but survey analysis methods have not been widely studied. Using methods developed decades ago for galaxy clustering studies, it is shown that nearly exact…
A suite of vast stellar surveys mapping the Milky Way, culminating in the Gaia mission, is revolutionizing the empirical information about the distribution and properties of stars in the Galactic stellar disk. We review and lay out what…
Speculation about the existence of advanced forms of life in the Universe and in our galaxy, has been since ever a subject of fascination and discussion in fiction, as well as in astrophysics, biology and philosophy. The well-known Fermi's…
More than 200 extrasolar planets have been discovered around relatively nearby stars, primarily through the Doppler line shifts owing to the reflex motions of their host stars, and more recently through transits of some planets across the…
The most reliable method to estimate the residence time of cosmic rays in the Galaxy is based on the study of the suppression, due to decay, of the flux of unstable nuclei such as beryllium-10, that have lifetime of appropriate duration.…
Cosmic rays can penetrate planetary atmospheres driving the formation of prebiotic molecules, which are important for the origin of life. We calculate the Galactic cosmic ray fluxes in the habitable zone of five nearby, well-studied…
Galaxy catalogs are essential for efficient searches of the electromagnetic counterparts of extragalactic gravitational-wave (GW) signals with highly uncertain localization. We show that one can efficiently catalog galaxies within a short…
The existence of intelligent, interstellar traveling and colonising life is a key assumption behind the Fermi Paradox. Until recently, detecting signs of life elsewhere has been so technically challenging as to seem almost impossible.…
The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the strong likelihood of alien intelligent life emerging (under a wide variety of assumptions) and the absence of any visible evidence for such emergence. We use this intriguing unlikeness to…