arXiv subjects

Margarita Safonova

Publications and source records attributed to Margarita Safonova.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Habitability Study of Terrestrial Planets: Application to Venus-like Worlds

The study of planetary habitability beyond Earth remains central and a challenging project in planetary science. Analysis of large volumes of planetary data from space missions such as CoRoT, Kepler, and JWST is directed ultimately at finding a planet similar to Earth, the Earth's twin, and answering the question of potential exo-habitability. The Earth Similarity Index (ESI) is a first step in this quest, ranging from 1 (Earth) to 0 (totally dissimilar to Earth). To identify planets that may be habitable to the extreme forms of life, we introduce the Mars Similarity Index (MSI). However, extreme forms of life have also been hypothesized under specific conditions in the upper atmosphere of Venus, motivating comparative habitability studies beyond Earth and Mars. The Venus Similarity Index (VSI), introduced here, is defined as the geometric mean of radius, density, escape velocity, and surface temperature, normalized in Venus units (VU). VSI values range from 0 (complete dissimilarity) to 1 (maximum similarity). The VSI provides a comparative framework for identifying Venus-like planetary environments within exoplanet populations. To explore habitability evolution, we further introduce the Ancient Venus Similarity Index (AVSI) and the Future Earth Similarity Index (FESI) to examine early Venusian conditions relative to ancient Earth and to assess potential future evolutionary pathways for Earth-like planets.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

Dust, gas activity and morphology of comet 12P/Pons-Brooks at heliocentric distances beyond 1.1 au

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is a periodic comet with an orbital period of approximately 71 years. Because of the period duration, aphelion of 35.3 au, and highly inclined orbit (74.2 deg), it is classified as a Halley-type comet. In this work, we present the results of the analysis of photometric and spectral observations of comet 12P/Pons-Brooks while it was at a heliocentric distance beyond 1.1 au, before perihelion passage. Quasisynchronous observations were carried out from July 2023 to March 2024 using 0.61-m and 1.3-m telescopes at the Skalnaté Pleso Observatory, 1-m telescope Zeiss-1000 Sanglokh International Astronomical Observatory, and 0.7-m telescope AZT8 at the observation station of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Photometric observations were conducted using B, V, and R filters of the Johnson-Cousins and Bessel photometric systems. We completed our data collection with broadband photometric and spectral observations on the 2-m HCT telescope at the Indian Astronomical Observatory. During this period, the dust coma morphology and photometric data measured in the R filter, such as the apparent, absolute magnitudes and dust activity level, indicate several repeated outbursts in brightness and dust activity occurred around July 22, September 25, October 17-23, and a significant outburst was recorded on November 1-7. We detected strong gas emission features in the cometary spectrum belonging to CN, C2, and C3 molecules. Furthermore, gas production rates of these molecules were estimated using Haser's model. A comparison of dust activity level and CN gas production rate shows that dust activity increased significantly as the comet approached the Sun, while gas activity exhibited more moderate changes.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

Classification and Nomenclature of Planets in the Mass-Radius Plane

6500+ exoplanets have been detected using various techniques. This prompted the emergence of many recent works on the taxonomy, or classification, of exoplanets. However, there is still no basic, fundamental definition of 'What is a planet?'. IAU has forwarded a definition in 2006, which however, raised more questions than it solved. The first task here is to establish if there are limits on the size/mass of planets. The lower mass limit may be assumed as of Mimas (0.03 EU) - approximately minimum mass required to attain a nearly spherical hydrostatic equilibrium shape. The upper mass limit may be easier - there is a natural lower limit to what constitutes a star: 0.08 SU. But then there are brown dwarfs: IAU has defined brown dwarfs as objects exceeding the deuterium burning limit (~13 JU), and giant exoplanets generally have masses of 0.3 to 60 JU. The resolution requires assembling the basic physical parameters that define planets quantitatively. Mass and radius are the two fundamental properties, and we propose to use a third correlated parameter: the moment of inertia. Based on this, we create the parametric Fundamental Planetary Plane where the two parameters are correlated with the third. The fundamental planetary plane (FPP) with turn-off point diagrams is constructed for visual representation. We propose an alternate potential description of a planet definition as 'A celestial spherical object, bound to a star or unbound, that lies on the fundamental planetary plane, within a mass range between 0.02 EU to 13 JU'. This definition is intended to complement existing taxonomies by providing a quantitative, structure-based criterion applicable to both Solar System planets, exoplanets and free-floating planets. These turn-off point diagrams serve as an alternative to the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram, but for planets.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2025

Near Ultraviolet Transient Explorer (NUTEx): A CubeSat-Based NUV Imaging Payload for Transient Sky Surveys

The Near Ultraviolet Transient Explorer (NUTEx) is a CubeSat-based near-ultraviolet (NUV) imaging payload designed for transient sky surveys and is currently under development. CubeSats are compact and cost-effective satellite platforms that have emerged as versatile tools for scientific exploration and technology demonstrations in space. NUTEx is an imaging telescope operating in the 200-300 nm wavelength range, intended for deployment on a micro-satellite bus. The optical system is based on a Ritchey Chretien (RC) telescope configuration, featuring a 146 mm primary mirror. The detector is a photon-counting microchannel plate (MCP) device with a solar-blind photocathode, paired with an in-house developed readout unit. The instrument has a wide field of view (FoV) of 4 deg, a peak effective area of approximately 18 sq cm at 260 nm, and can reach a sensitivity of 21 AB magnitude (SNR = 5) in a 1200 second exposure. The primary scientific objective of NUTEx is to monitor the night sky for transient phenomena, such as supernova remnants, flaring M-dwarf stars, and other short-timescale events. The payload is currently scheduled for launch in Q2 2026. This paper presents the NUTEx instrument design, outlines its scientific goals and capabilities, and provides an overview of the electronics and mechanical subsystems, including structural analysis.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2025

Deconvolution for Large Astronomical Surveys: A Study of the Scaled Gradient Projection Method on Zwicky Transient Facility Data

Ground-based astronomical observations will continue to produce resolution-limited images due to atmospheric seeing. Deconvolution reverses such effects and thus can benefit extracted science in multifaceted ways. We apply the Scaled Gradient Projection (SGP) algorithm for the single-band deconvolution of several observed images from the Zwicky Transient Facility and mainly discuss the performance on stellar sources. The method shows good photometric flux preservation, which deteriorates for fainter sources but significantly reduces flux uncertainties even for the faintest sources. Deconvolved sources have a well-defined Full-Width-at-Half-Maximum (FWHM) of roughly one pixel (one arcsecond for ZTF) regardless of the observed seeing. Detection after deconvolution results in catalogs with $\gtrsim$99.6% completeness relative to detections in the observed images. A few observed sources that could not be detected in the deconvolved image are found near saturated sources, whereas for others, the deconvolved counterparts are detected when slightly different detection parameters are used. The deconvolution reveals new faint sources previously undetectable, which are confirmed by crossmatching with the deeper DESI Legacy DR10 and with Pan-STARRS1 through forced photometry. The method could identify examples of serendipitous potential deblends that exceeded SExtractor's deblending capabilities, with as extreme as $Δm \approx 3$ and separations as small as one arcsecond between the deblended components. Our survey-agnostic approach is better and eight times faster than Richardson-Lucy deconvolution and could be a reliable method for incorporation into survey pipelines.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2025

SAMPLE -- Stratospheric Altitude Microbiology Probe for Life Existence -- A Method of Collection of Stratospheric Samples Using Balloon-Borne Payload System

The Earth possesses many environmental extremes that mimic conditions on extraterrestrial worlds. The stratosphere at 30-40 km altitude closely resembles the surface of Mars in terms of pressure, temperature, and radiation levels (UV, proton, and Galactic cosmic rays). While microbial life in the troposphere is well documented, the true upper limit of Earth's biosphere remains unclear. The stratosphere offers a promising environment to explore microbial survival in such extreme conditions. Despite its significance to astrobiology, this region remains largely unexplored due to difficulties in access and avoiding contamination. To address this, we have developed SAMPLE (Stratospheric Altitude Microbiology Probe for Life Existence), a balloon-borne payload designed to collect dust samples from the stratosphere and return them in conditions suitable for lab analysis. The entire system is novel and designed in-house, with weight- and stress-optimized components. The main payload includes three pre-sterilized sampling trays and a controller that determines altitude and governs tray operation. One tray will remain closed during flight (airborne control) and another on the ground (cleanroom control) to monitor contamination. Additional systems include environmental sensors, GPS trackers, cameras, and a Flight Termination Unit (FTU) to end the mission once sampling is complete. A parachute ensures the safe recovery of the payload. Upon retrieving the payload, the sampling trays (including controls) will be sent to a suitable laboratory where the samples will be examined for the presence and nature of collected material.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

Making Habitable Worlds: Planets Versus Megastructures

In 2016, a star KIC 8462852 caught the world's attention due to a paper by citizen scientists who noticed its seemingly unexplainable brightness variations. The forward theory was offered - KIC 8462852 is surrounded by a Dyson sphere, a megastructure made by an alien civilization to collect all energy output from their star. Finally, in 2018, its light curve showed chromaticity more characteristic of the dust (from comets or asteroids) rather than of something made from solid material, but the world was woken up to the idea of megastructures. But, in Dyson's time, only Solar System planets were known; it took more than 20 years to realize that nature has no problem making planets and does it with a flair -- the total number of planets in the Galaxy is estimated to be in billions. With such abundance of planets, there would be no need to destroy the entire planetary system to make one sphere. Instead, a civilization can expand to a system that has planet(s) in the habitable zone (HZ), or a planet can be moved into it. Alternatively, a free-floating planet (FFP) can be captured and moved into the HZ. These shifts can be performed at a constant low-thrust acceleration using high power directional lasers, resulting in a gradual spiral transfer from one orbit to another. We propose here to search for ETI by looking for high-power laser technosignatures and consider merits of such signatures. We suggest to specifically pay attention to the multiple planetary systems that have Strange Exoplanetary Architectures (SEA) - unusual planetary arrangements that cannot be explained by current planetary formation theories, because these could be the result of ETI moving planets intentionally to suit their needs.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2024

AstroSat/UVIT Study of the Diffuse Ultraviolet Radiation in the Dwarf Galaxy Holmberg II

We present measurements of diffuse ultraviolet emission in the dwarf irregular galaxy Holmberg II obtained with the UltraViolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) onboard AstroSat. With a spatial resolution of 1.2 to 1.6 arcsec, these are the highest resolution UV observations of the galaxy to date. We find that diffuse emission accounts for 70.6 % (58.1 %) of the total FUV(NUV) emission, respectively. We perform a UV-IR correlation study of the diffuse emission in this galaxy using infrared observations from Spitzer Space Telescope and Herschel Space Observatory for selected locations, free of detectable bright point sources. The strongest positive correlation between FUV and IR is observed at 70 micron for high HI density locations, indicating that warm dust grains dominate the IR emission, in agreement with earlier studies, while NUV is better correlated with 160 micron emission associated with cold dust grains. Low HI density regions or cavities, do not show any significant UV-IR correlation except at 160 micron, implying either the presence of colder dust grains in cavities, being irradiated by the general radiation field, or insufficient amount of dust. The dust scattering contribution in high HI density regions, estimated using a single scattering model with foreground dust clouds with LMC reddening, gives best-fit albedo and asymmetry factor values of 0.2 and 0.5, respectively, in reasonable agreement with the theoretical predictions for LMC dust. Our model derived scattering optical depths in the FUV range from 0.02 to 0.12, implying the medium is optically thin. Therefore, in high HI density regions, dust scattering can be one the sources of the observed diffuse UV emission, apart from possible contributions from molecular hydrogen fluorescence, However, the diffuse UV component in HI cavities can only be explained via other mechanisms, such as two photon emission.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) crossing the Jupiter orbit

We report results of intensive time-resolved imaging photometry and synoptic deep imaging of the comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) performed in February 2013. The data were obtained at the Wise Observatory in Israel (WO), at the Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) in India, and at the Polaris Observatory Association in California, USA. During this period, the comet's heliocentric distance changed from 4.9 to 4.6 AU, just within the orbit of Jupiter. We analyze these early images in an attempt to determine the nuclear rotation period, assuming that at these relatively large heliocentric distances it would be possible to detect the photometric modulation of a rotating nucleus against an underdeveloped coma. Since this is not evident in our February 2013 data, with more than 400 independent photometric measurements analyzed, we can only set upper limits of 0.05 mag for periodic brightness modulations. We discuss (and discount) a possible brightening event (minor outburst) that occurred on $15-16$ February 2013. We also present deep synoptic images of the comet, obtained by combining our exposures for each night, and analyze them. We find that during the period of our observations the comet exhibited a $\sim$$30^{\prime\prime}\simeq 60000$-km tail with no substructures visible and that this appearance did not change throughout our campaign. The comet, as indicated by a single spectroscopic measurement obtained during this observation period, showed a dust coma reflecting the solar light. Our observations indicate that during February 2013, comet ISON was relatively quiet, with the dust coma presumably hiding any light modulation by a spinning nucleus.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2024

Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING): Instrument Design, Assembly and Calibration

The Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING) is a near-ultraviolet (NUV) low-resolution spectrograph payload designed to operate in the NUV range, 1400 $\unicode{x212B}$ -- 2700 $\unicode{x212B}$, from a stable space platform. SING telescope has a primary aperture of 298 mm, feeding the light to the long-slit UV spectrograph. SING has a field of view (FOV) of 1$^{\circ}$, achieving a spatial resolution of 1.33 arc minute and spectral resolution of 3.7 $\unicode{x212B}$ ($R\sim600$) at the central wavelength. SING employs a micro-channel plate (MCP) with a CMOS readout-based photon-counting detector. The instrument is designed to observe diffuse sources such as nebulae, supernova remnants, and the interstellar medium (ISM) to understand their chemistry. SING was selected by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to be hosted on the Chinese Space Station. The instrument will undergo qualification tests as per the launch requirements. In this paper, we describe the hardware design, optomechanical assembly, and calibration of the instrument.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

Development Of Raspberry Pi-based Processing Unit for UV Photon-Counting Detectors

In ultraviolet (UV) astronomical observations, photons from the sources are very few compared to the visible or infrared (IR) wavelength ranges. Detectors operating in the UV usually employ a photon-counting mode of operation. These detectors usually have an image intensifier sensitive to UV photons and a readout mechanism that employs photon counting. The development of readouts for these detectors is resource-intensive and expensive. In this paper, we describe the development of a low-cost UV photon-counting detector processing unit that employs a Raspberry Pi with its in built readout to perform the photon-counting operation. Our system can operate in both 3x3 and 5x5 window modes at 30 frames per sec (fps), where 5x5 window mode also enables the provision of detection of double events. The system can be built quickly from readily available custom-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and is thus used in inexpensive CubeSats or small satellite missions. This low-cost solution promises to broaden access to UV observations, advancing research possibilities in space-based astronomy.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2023

Multi-wavelength photometric study of five contact binaries in the field of globular cluster M4

Binary stars are believed to be key determinants in understanding globular cluster evolution. In this paper, we present the Multi-band photometric analyses of five variables in the nearest galactic globular cluster M4, from the observations of CASE, M4 Core Project with HST for four variables (V48, V49, V51, and V55) and the data collected from T40 and C18 Telescopes of Wise Observatory for one variable (NV4). The light curves of five binaries are analyzed using the Wilson-Devinney method (WD) and their fundamental parameters have been derived. A period variation study was carried out using times of minima obtained from the literature for four binaries and the nature of the variation observed is discussed. The evolutionary state of systems is evaluated using M-R diagram, correlating with that of a few well-studied close binaries in other globular clusters. Based on the data obtained from the Gaia DR3 database, a three-dimensional Vector-Point Diagrams (VPD) was built to evaluate the cluster membership of the variables, and two out of them (V49 and NV4) were found to be not cluster members.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2023

Deep Photometry of Suspected Gravitational Lensing Events: Potential Detection of a Cosmic String

Cosmic strings (CS) are one-dimensional cosmological-size objects predicted in realistic models of the early Universe. Analysis of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and Planck surveys revealed several CS candidates. One of the candidates, CSc-1, was found to be most reliable because of the statistically significant chains of gravitational lensing (GL) candidates in its field. We observed the brightest of the objects in the CSc-1 field, a galaxy pair SDSSJ110429.61+233150.3. The significant correlation between the spectra of the two components indicates the possible GL nature of the pair. Our simulations of observational data in the CSc-1 field shows that a large number of pairs can be explained by the complex geometry of the CS. Simulations of the SDSSJ110429 galaxy pair has shown that the observed angle between the components of the pair can be explained if the CS is strongly inclined and, possibly, bent in the image plane. In our preliminary data, we also detected the sign of the sharp isophotal edge in one image, which along with CMB and spectral data strongly suggests the possibility of a CS detection.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

$β$-SGP: Scaled Gradient Projection with $β$-divergence for astronomical image restoration

Image restoration in astronomy has been considered a vital step in many ground-based observational programs that often suffer from sub-optimal seeing due to atmospheric turbulence, distortion of stellar shapes due to instrumental aberrations, trailing, and other issues. It holds importance for various tasks: improved astrometry, deblending of overlapping sources, faint source detection, and identification of point sources near bright extended objects, such as galaxies, to name a few. We conduct an empirical study by applying the Scaled Gradient Projection (SGP) iterative image deconvolution algorithm to restore distorted stellar shapes in our observed data. We investigate using a more flexible divergence measure, the $β$-divergence, which contains the commonly-used Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence as a special case and allows automatic adaptation of the parameter $β$ to the data. An extensive set of experiments comparing the performance of SGP and its $β$-divergence variant ($β$-SGP) is carried out on extracted star stamps and on images containing multiple stars (both crowded and relatively sparser fields). We show a consistent enhancement in the flux conservation across all considered scenarios using $β$-SGP compared to SGP. Using a few quantifiable metrics such as the Full-Width-at-Half-Maximum (FWHM) and ellipticity of stars, we observe that $β$-SGP improves restoration quality, compared to the SGP, in many cases and still preserves restoration quality in others. We conclude that generalized versions of image restoration algorithms are more robust due to their enhanced flexibility and could be a promising modification for astronomical image restoration.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2022

Low-Cost Raspberry Pi Star Sensor for Small Satellites

We present here a low-cost Raspberry Pi (RPi)-based star sensor StarberrySense using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, developed and built for applications in small satellites and CubeSat-based missions. A star sensor is one of the essential instruments onboard a satellite for attitude determination. However, most commercially available star sensors are expensive and bulky to be used in small satellite missions. StarberrySense is a configurable system -- it can operate as an imaging camera, a centroiding camera, or as a star sensor. We describe the algorithms implemented in the sensor, its assembly and calibration. This payload was selected by a recent Announcement of Opportunity call for payloads to fly on the PS4-Orbital Platform by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2022

Gravitational Lensing and Microlensing in Clusters: Clusters as Dark Matter Telescopes

Gravitational lensing is brightening of background objects due to deflection of light by foreground sources. Rich clusters of galaxies are very effective lenses because they are centrally concentrated. Such natural Gravitational Telescopes provide us with strongly magnified galaxies at high redshifts otherwise too faint to be detected or analyzed. With a lensing boost, we can study galaxies shining at the end of the `Dark Ages'. We propose to exploit the opportunity provided by the large field of view and depth, to search for sources magnified by foreground clusters in the vicinity of the cluster critical curves, where enhancements can be of several tens in brightness. Another aspect is microlensing (ML), where we would like to continue our survey of a number of Galactic globular clusters over time-scales of weeks to years to search for ML events from planets to hypothesized central intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH).

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

The Near Ultraviolet Transient Surveyor (NUTS): An ultraviolet telescope to observe variable sources

Observing the ultraviolet (UV) sky for time-variable phenomena is one of the many exciting science goals that can be achieved by a relatively small aperture telescope in space. The Near Ultraviolet Transient Surveyor (NUTS) is a wide-field ($3^\circ$) imager with a photon-counting detector in the near-UV (NUV, 200-300 nm), to be flown on an upcoming small satellite mission. It has a Ritchey-Chretien (RC) telescope design with correction optics to enable wide-field observations while minimizing optical aberrations. We have used an intensified CMOS detector with a solar blind photocathode, to be operated in photon-counting mode. The main science goal of the instrument is the observation of transient sources in the UV, including flare stars, supernovae, and active galactic nuclei. NUTS's aperture size and effective area enable observation of relatively unexplored, brighter parts of the UV sky which are usually not accessible to larger missions. We have designed, fabricated, and assembled the instrument, and the final calibrations and environmental tests are being carried out. In this paper, we provide the scientific motivation and technical overview of the instrument and describe the assembly and calibration steps.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2021

Postulating Exoplanetary Habitability via a Novel Anomaly Detection Method

A profound shift in the study of cosmology came with the discovery of thousands of exoplanets and the possibility of the existence of billions of them in our Galaxy. The biggest goal in these searches is whether there are other life-harbouring planets. However, the question which of these detected planets are habitable, potentially-habitable, or maybe even inhabited, is still not answered. Some potentially habitable exoplanets have been hypothesized, but since Earth is the only known habitable planet, measures of habitability are necessarily determined with Earth as the reference. Several recent works introduced new habitability metrics based on optimization methods. Classification of potentially habitable exoplanets using supervised learning is another emerging area of study. However, both modeling and supervised learning approaches suffer from drawbacks. We propose an anomaly detection method, the Multi-Stage Memetic Algorithm (MSMA), to detect anomalies and extend it to an unsupervised clustering algorithm MSMVMCA to use it to detect potentially habitable exoplanets as anomalies. The algorithm is based on the postulate that Earth is an anomaly, with the possibility of existence of few other anomalies among thousands of data points. We describe an MSMA-based clustering approach with a novel distance function to detect habitable candidates as anomalies (including Earth). The results are cross-matched with the habitable exoplanet catalog (PHL-HEC) of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) with both optimistic and conservative lists of potentially habitable exoplanets.

astro-ph.EP↗