Publications

La liste de mes publication mise à jour est ici: NASA Astrophysics Data System

Nature

Charon’s size and an upper limit on its atmosphere from a stellar occultation
(2006, 439, 52)

Pluto and its satellite, Charon (discovered in 1978), appear to form a double planet, rather than a hierarchical planet/satellite couple. Charon is about half Pluto’s size and about one-eighth its mass. The precise radii of Pluto and Charon have remained uncertain, leading to large uncertainties on their densities. Although stellar occultations by Charon are in principle a powerful way of measuring its size, they are rare, as the satellite subtends less than 0.3 microradians (0.06 arcsec) on the sky. One occultation (in 1980) yielded a lower limit of 600 km for the satellite’s radius, which was later refined to 601.5 km. Here we report observations from a multi-station stellar occultation by Charon, which we use to derive a radius, C = 603.6 +/- 1.4 km (1σ), and a density of ρ = 1.71 +/- 0.08 g cm-3. This occultation also provides upper limits of 110 and 15 (3σ) nanobar for an atmosphere around Charon, assuming respectively a pure nitrogen or pure methane atmosphere.

Science

Deep Impact: Observations from a Worldwide Earth-Based Campaign
(2005, 310, 265)

On 4 July 2005, many observatories around the world and in space observed the collision of Deep Impact with comet 9P/Tempel 1 or its aftermath. This was an unprecedented coordinated observational campaign. These data show that (i) there was new material after impact that was compositionally different from that seen before impact; (ii) the ratio of dust mass to gas mass in the ejecta was much larger than before impact; (iii) the new activity did not last more than a few days, and by 9 July the comet’s behavior was indistinguishable from its pre-impact behavior; and (iv) there were interesting transient phenomena that may be correlated with cratering physics.

The Astrophysical Journal

Accurate X-Ray position of the anomalous X-Ray Pulsar XTE J1810-197 and identification of its likely infrared counterpart
(2004, 603, L97)

Unveiling the Central Parsec Region of an Active Galactic Nucleus: The Circinus Nucleus in the Near-Infrared with the Very Large Telescope
(2004, 614, 135)

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Dust observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 at the time of the Deep Impact
(2007, 476, 979)

Broad- and narrowband visible imaging of comet 9P/Tempel 1 at ESO around the time of the Deep Impact event
(2007, 470, 1175)

A dual emission mechanism in Sgr A*/L’?
(2005, 439, L9)

Mid-infrared imaging of active galaxies. Active nuclei and embedded star clusters
(2005, 438, 803)

Organic matter in Seyfert 2 nuclei: comparison with our Galactic center lines of sight
(2004, 423, 549)

A new VLT surface map of Titan at 1.575 µm
(2004, 421, L17)

The infrared L’-band view of the Galactic Center with NAOS-CONICA at VLT
(2004, 417, L15)

VLT 3-5 µm spectroscopy and imaging of NGC 1068: does the AGN hide nuclear starburst activity?
(2003, 398, 101)

Kinematics of molecular gas in the nucleus of NGC 1068, from H2 line emission observed with VLT
(2001, 369, L33)

Adaptive optics images at 3.5 and 4.8 µm of the core arcsec of NGC 1068: more evidence for a dusty/molecular torus
(2000, 353, 465)

Hot dust in the active nucleus of NGC 7469 probed by adaptive optics observations
(1998, 336, 823)

Positioning the near-infrared versus optical emission peaks in NGC 1068 with adaptive optics
(1997, 320, 399)

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Establishing the nature of companion candidates to X-ray-emitting late B-type stars
(2007, 381, 1569)

Morphology of the coronal-line region in active galactic nuclei

(2005, 364, L28)

Journal of Physics Conference Series

The infrared emission of the dust clouds close to Sgr A*
(2006, 54, 386)

Planetary and Space Science

First images of a comet with adaptive optics
(1998, 46, 547)

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Using Adaptive Optics systems on large telescopes: a study of the fraction of observing time really spent for science
(2001, 113, 397)

Adaptive Optics imaging at 1-5 µm on large telescopes: the COMIC camera for ADONIS
(1998, 110, 1087)

Astrophysics and Space Science

The elusive dust torus of NGC 1068 unveiled by Adaptive Optics observations from 2.2 µm to 4.8 µm
(1997, 248, 237)

Unveiling the Central Parsec Region of an Active Galactic Nucleus: The Circinus Nucleus in the Near-Infrared with the Very Large Telescope