Astrophysical: Small solar system bodies

  • Publication
    A Candidate Location for Planet Nine from an Interstellar Meteoroid: The Messenger Hypothesis

    The existence of a hypothetical Planet Nine lurking in the outer solar system has been invoked as a plausible explanation for the anomalous clustering in the...

  • Publication
    Apophis Planetary Defense Campaign

    We describe results of a planetary defense exercise conducted during the close approach to Earth by the near-Earth asteroid (99942) Apophis during 2020 December...

  • Publication
    Detection of the Irregular Shape of the Southern Limb of Menoetius from Observations of the 2017-2018 Patroclus-Menoetius Mutual Events

    This work presents the analysis of seven mutual events of the Patroclus-Menoetius system (PMS) observed during the last season of mutual events, in 2017-2018...

  • News
    Nailing Bennu's colors to the mast: new findings on the origin of this primitive body

    Science magazine, in a special collection on asteroid Bennu, has published the results of the analysis of photometric-spectrum color variations on the surface...

  • Publication
    Opposition Observations of 162173 Ryugu: Normal Albedo Map Highlights Variations in Regolith Characteristics

    On 2019 January 8, the Telescopic Optical Navigation Camera (ONC-T) on board the Hayabusa2 spacecraft observed the Cb-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu under near...

  • Publication
    Synchronous Rotation in the (136199) Eris-Dysnomia System

    We combine photometry of Eris from a 6 month campaign on the Palomar 60 inch telescope in 2015, a 1 month Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 campaign in 2018, and Dark...

  • Publication
    The Changing Rotational Light-curve Amplitude of Varuna and Evidence for a Close-in Satellite

    From CCD observations carried out with different telescopes, we present short-term photometric measurements of the large trans-Neptunian object Varuna in 10...

  • News
    The seventh edition of the "Astronomy Education Adventure in the Canary Islands" pays tribute to the mythical series COSMOS

    "Our home in the cosmic ocean" is the title chosen for the new edition of the International Summer Course for teachers organized by the Instituto de Astrofísica...

  • News
    Touching an asteroid and coming back: OSIRIS-REx and Bennu

    This Tuesday October 20th at around 23.12 hr (Canary time) the NASA space probe OSIRIS-REx will make its first attempt to collect samples from the asteroid...