Search Publications
Perturbers: SPHERE detection limits to planetary-mass companions in protoplanetary disks
Ménard, F.; Garufi, A.; Henning, Th. +25 more
The detection of a wide range of substructures such as rings, cavities, and spirals has become a common outcome of high spatial resolution imaging of protoplanetary disks, both in the near-infrared scattered light and in the thermal millimetre continuum emission. The most frequent interpretation of their origin is the presence of planetary-mass co…
Solar Orbiter: Mission and spacecraft design
Müller, D.; Zouganelis, I.; Cipriani, F. +37 more
The main scientific goal of Solar Orbiter is to address the central question of heliophysics: `how does the Sun create and control the heliosphere?' To achieve this goal, the spacecraft carries a unique combination of ten scientific instruments (six remote-sensing instruments and four in-situ instruments) towards the innermost regions of the Solar…
A new, Gaia-based, catalogue of blue straggler stars in open clusters
Carraro, G.; Ahumada, J. A.; Rain, M. J.
Context. Blue straggler stars are exotic objects present in all stellar environments whose nature and formation channels are still partially unclear. They seem to be particularly abundant in open clusters (OCs), thus offering a unique chance to tackle these problems statistically.
Aims: We aim to build up a new and homogeneous catalogue of bl…
Mapping luminous hot stars in the Galaxy
Rix, H. -W.; Drimmel, R.; Poggio, E. +4 more
Luminous hot stars (MKs ≲ 0 mag and Teff ≳ 8000 K) dominate the stellar energy input to the interstellar medium throughout cosmological time, are used as laboratories to test theories of stellar evolution and multiplicity, and serve as luminous tracers of star formation in the Milky Way and other galaxies. Massive …
The first widespread solar energetic particle event observed by Solar Orbiter on 2020 November 29
Kulkarni, S. R.; Lario, D.; Laitinen, T. +66 more
Context. On 2020 November 29, the first widespread solar energetic particle (SEP) event of solar cycle 25 was observed at four widely separated locations in the inner (≲1 AU) heliosphere. Relativistic electrons as well as protons with energies > 50 MeV were observed by Solar Orbiter (SolO), Parker Solar Probe, the Solar Terrestrial Relations Ob…
PENELLOPE: The ESO data legacy program to complement the Hubble UV Legacy Library of Young Stars (ULLYSES). I. Survey presentation and accretion properties of Orion OB1 and σ-Orionis
Lodato, G.; France, K.; Mendigutía, I. +69 more
The evolution of young stars and disks is driven by the interplay of several processes, notably the accretion and ejection of material. These processes, critical to correctly describe the conditions of planet formation, are best probed spectroscopically. Between 2020 and 2022, about 500orbits of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) are being devoted i…
Stringent upper limit on Be star fractions produced by binary interaction
Wang, C.; Milone, A. P.; Schootemeijer, A. +2 more
Context. Binary evolution can result in fast-rotating stars through accretion of angular momentum during mass-transfer phases. These fast-rotating stars are predicted to be observable as Be stars. Current models struggle to produce a satisfactory description of Be star populations, even though numerous pieces of observational evidence indicate tha…
CON-quest. Searching for the most obscured galaxy nuclei
Greve, T. R.; Gallagher, J. S.; Onishi, K. +28 more
Context. Some luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs) host extremely compact (r < 100 pc) and dusty nuclei. The high extinction associated with large column densities of gas and dust toward these objects render them hard to detect at many wavelengths. The intense infrared radiation arising from warm dust in these sources…
The changing face of AU Mic b: stellar spots, spin-orbit commensurability, and transit timing variations as seen by CHEOPS and TESS
Guterman, P.; Alonso, R.; Deleuil, M. +78 more
AU Mic is a young planetary system with a resolved debris disc showing signs of planet formation and two transiting warm Neptunes near mean-motion resonances. Here we analyse three transits of AU Mic b observed with the CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS), supplemented with sector 1 and 27 Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) photo…
Diversity of nuclear star cluster formation mechanisms revealed by their star formation histories
Hilker, M.; Pinna, F.; de Zeeuw, P. T. +15 more
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are the densest stellar systems in the Universe and are found in the centres of all types of galaxies. They are thought to form via mergers of star clusters such as ancient globular clusters (GCs) that spiral to the centre as a result of dynamical friction or through in situ star formation directly at the galaxy centre…