Siegfried Eggl

For More Information

• Research Website

Education

• B.S., Astrophysics, University of Vienna, 2005
• M.S., Astrophysics, University of Vienna, 2008
• M.S., Computational Physics, University of Vienna, 2009
• Ph.D., Astrophysics, University of Vienna, 2013

Academic Positions

• Affiliate faculty (0%), Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2022-today
• NCSA faculty affiliate (0%), Center for Astrophysical Surveys (CAPS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2021-today
• Assistant Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2021-today
• Acting Assistant Professor, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Astronomy, 2018-2021
• Post doctoral researcher, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Planetary Science, Pasadena, CA, 2016-2018
• Post doctoral researcher, IMCCE/Paris Observatory, Paris, France, Astronomy, 2013-2016

Design Teams

• Clear Constellation competition (https://www.clearconstellation.com/)

Research Interests

• Astrodynamics
• Planetary Defense
• Celestial Navigation
• Dynamical Systems
• Space Domain Awareness

Books Authored or Co-Authored (Original Editions)

• Pilat-Lohinger, E., Eggl, S., & Bazso, A. (2019). Planetary Habitability in Binary Systems (Vol. 4). World Scientific.

Chapters in Books

• Eggl, S. & Dvorak, R. (2010). An introduction to common numerical integration codes used in dynamical astronomy. In Dynamics of small solar system bodies and exoplanets (pp. 431-480). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
• Eggl, S. (2018). Habitability of planets in binary star systems. Handbook of Exoplanets, ISBN 978-3-319-55332-0. Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature, 2018, id.61

Selected Articles in Journals

• Popp, M., & Eggl, S. (2017), Nature Communications, Climate variations on Earth-like circumbinary planets, 8, 14957.
• Howell, S. M., Chou, L., Thompson, M., Bouchard, M. C., Cusson, S., Marcus, M. L., Smith, H. B., Bhattaru, S., Blalock, J. J., Brueshaber, S., Eggl, S., Jawin, E. R., Miller, K., Rizzo, M., Steakley, K., Thomas, N. H., Trent, K. R., Ugelow, M., Budney, C. J., Mitchell, K. L., & Lowes, L. (2018), Planetary and Space Science, Camilla: A centaur reconnaissance and impact mission concept, 164, 184.
• Manser, C. J., Gaensicke, B. T., Eggl, S., Hollands, M., Izquierdo, P., Koester, D., Landstreet, J. D., Lyra, W., Marsh, T. R., Meru, F., Mustill, A. J., Rodriguez-Gil, P., Toloza, O., Veras, D., Wilson, D. J., Burleigh, M. R., Davies, M. B., Farihi, J., Gentile Fusillo, N., de Martino, D., Parsons, S. G., Quirrenbach, A., Raddi, R., Reffert, S., Del Santo, M., Schreiber, M. R., Silvotti, R., Toonen, S., Villaver, E., Wyatt, M., Xu, S., & Portegies Zwart, S. (2019), Science, A planetesimal orbiting within the debris disc around a white dwarf star, 364, 66.
• Hestroffer, D., Sanchez, P., Staron, L., Bagatin, A. C., Eggl, S., Losert, W., Murdoch, N., Opsomer, E., Radjai, F., Richardson, D. C., Salazar, M., Scheeres, D. J., Schwartz, S., Taberlet, N., & Yano, H. (2019), Astronomy and Astrophysics Review, Small Solar System Bodies as granular media, 27, 6.
• Vavilov, D. E., Eggl, S., Medvedev, Y. D., & Zatitskiy, P. B. (2019), Astronomy and Astrophysics, Shape evolution of cometary nuclei via anisotropic mass loss, 622, L5.
• Georgakarakos, N., & Eggl, S. (2019), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, On the enlargement of habitable zones around binary stars in hostile environments, 487, L58.
• Farnocchia, D., Eggl, S., Chodas, P. W., Giorgini, J. D., & Chesley, S. R. (2019), Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, Planetary encounter analysis on the B-plane: a comprehensive formulation, 131, 36.
• Eggl, S., Georgakarakos, N., & Pilat-Lohinger, E. (2020), Galaxies, Habitable Zones in Binary Star Systems: A Zoology, 8, 65.
• Wolf, E. T., Haqq-Misra, J., Kopparapu, R., Fauchez, T. J., Welsh, W. F., Kane, S. R., Kostov, V., & Eggl, S. (2020), Journal of Geophysical Research (Planets), The Resilience of Habitable Climates Around Circumbinary Stars, 125, e06576.
• Eggl, S., Farnocchia, D., Chamberlin, A. B., & Chesley, S. R. (2020), Icarus, Star catalog position and proper motion corrections in asteroid astrometry II: The Gaia era, 339, 113596.
• Carry, B., Thuillot, W., Spoto, F., David, P., Berthier, J., Tanga, P., Mignard, F., Bouquillon, S., Mendez, R. A., Rivet, J.-P., Le Van Suu, A., Dell'Oro, A., Fedorets, G., Frezouls, B., Granvik, M., Guiraud, J., Muinonen, K., Panem, C., Pauwels, T., Roux, W., Walmsley, G., Petit, J.-M., Abe, L., Ayvazian, V., Baillie, K., Baransky, A., Bendjoya, P., Dennefeld, M., Desmars, J., Eggl, S., Godunova, V., Hestroffer, D., Inasaridze, R., Kashuba, V., Krugly, Y. N., Molotov, I. E., Robert, V., Simon, A., Sokolov, I., Souami, D., Tarady, V., Taris, F., Troianskyi, V., Vasylenko, V., & Vernet, D. (2021), Astronomy and Astrophysics, Potential asteroid discoveries by the ESA Gaia mission. Results from follow-up observations, 648, A96.
• Quarles, B., Eggl, S., Rosario-Franco, M., & Li, G. (2021), The Astronomical Journal, Exomoons in Systems with a Strong Perturber: Applications to α Cen AB, 162, 58.
• Georgakarakos, N., Eggl, S., & Dobbs-Dixon, I. (2021), Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, Circumbinary habitable zones in the presence of a giant planet, 8, 44.
• Richardson, D. C., Agrusa, H. F., Barbee, B., Bottke, W. F., Cheng, A. F., Eggl, S., Ferrari, F., Hirabayashi, M., Karatekin, Ö., McMahon, J., Schwartz, S. R., Ballouz, R.-L., Bagatin, A. C., Dotto, E., Fahnestock, E. G., Fuentes-Muñoz, O., Gkolias, I., Hamilton, D. P., Jacobson, S. A., Jutzi, M., Lyzhoft, J., Makadia, R., Meyer, A. J., Michel, P., Nakano, R., Noiset, G., Raducan, S. D., Rambaux, N., Rossi, A., Sánchez, P., Scheeres, D. J., Soldini, S., Stickle, A. M., Tanga, P., Tsiganis, K., & Zhang, Y. (2022), The Planetary Science Journal, Predictions for the Dynamical States of the Didymos System before and after the Planned DART Impact, 3, 157.
• Statler, T. S., Raducan, S. D., Barnouin, O. S., DeCoster, M. E., Chesley, S. R., Barbee, B., Agrusa, H. F., Cambioni, S., Cheng, A. F., Dotto, E., Eggl, S., Fahnestock, E. G., Ferrari, F., Graninger, D., Herique, A., Herreros, I., Hirabayashi, M., Ivanovski, S., Jutzi, M., Karatekin, Ö., Lucchetti, A., Luther, R., Makadia, R., Marzari, F., Michel, P., Murdoch, N., Nakano, R., Ormö, J., Pajola, M., Rivkin, A. S., Rossi, A., Sánchez, P., Schwartz, S. R., Soldini, S., Souami, D., Stickle, A., Tortora, P., Trigo-Rodríguez, J. M., Venditti, F., Vincent, J.-B., & Wünnemann, K. (2022), The Planetary Science Journal, After DART: Using the First Full-scale Test of a Kinetic Impactor to Inform a Future Planetary Defense Mission, 3, 244.
• Makadia, R., Raducan, S. D., Fahnestock, E. G., & Eggl, S. (2022), The Planetary Science Journal, Heliocentric Effects of the DART Mission on the (65803) Didymos Binary Asteroid System, 3, 184.
• Schwamb, M. E., Jones, R. L., Yoachim, P., Volk, K., Dorsey, R. C., Opitom, C., Greenstreet, S., Lister, T., Snodgrass, C., Bolin, B. T., Inno, L., Bannister, M. T., Eggl, S., et al. (2023), The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Tuning the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Observing Strategy for Solar System Science, 266, 22.
• Cheng, A. F., Agrusa, H. F., Barbee, B. W., Meyer, A. J., Farnham, T. L., Raducan, S. D., Richardson, D. C., Dotto, E., Zinzi, A., Della Corte, V., Statler, T. S., Chesley, S., Naidu, S. P., Hirabayashi, M., Li, J.-Y., Eggl, S., et al. (2023), Nature, Momentum transfer from the DART mission kinetic impact on asteroid Dimorphos, 616, 457.
• Nandakumar, S., Eggl, S., Tregloan-Reed, J., Adam, C., Anderson-Baldwin, J., Bannister, M. T., Battle, A., Benkhaldoun, Z., Campbell, T., Colque, J. P., Damke, G., Plauchu Frayn, I., Ghachoui, M., Guillen, P. F., Kaeouach, A. E., Krantz, H. R., Langbroek, M., Rattenbury, N., Reddy, V., Ridden-Harper, R., Young, B., Unda-Sanzana, E., Watson, A. M., Walker, C. E., Barentine, J. C., Benvenuti, P., Di Vruno, F., Peel, M. W., Rawls, M. L., Bassa, C., Flores-Quintana, C., García, P., Kim, S., Longa-Peña, P., Ortiz, E., Otarola, Á., Romero-Colmenares, M., Sanhueza, P., Siringo, G., & Soto, M. (2023), Nature, The high optical brightness of the BlueWalker 3 satellite, 623, 938.
• Makadia, R., Chesley, S.R., Farnocchia, D., Naidu, S.P., Souami, D., Tanga, P., Tsiganis, K., Hirabayashi, M. and Eggl, S., (2024), The Planetary Science Journal, Measurability of the Heliocentric Momentum Enhancement from a Kinetic Impact: The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission. 5(2), p.38.
• Pascarella, A., Bommena, R., Eggl, S., Woollands, R. (2024). Mission design for space telescope servicing at Sun-Earth L2. Acta Astronautica 224, 397-414
• Georgakarakos, N., Eggl, S., Ali-Dib, M., Dobbs-Dixon, I. (2024). Empirical Stability Criteria for 3D Hierarchical Triple Systems. I. Circumbinary Planets, The Astronomical Journal, Volume 168, Issue 5, id.224, 16 pp.
• Makadia, R., Farnocchia, D., Chesley, S., Eggl, S. (2025). "Gauss-Radau Small-body Simulator (GRSS): An Open Source Library for Planetary Defense", The Planetary Science Journal, Issue 6(4), 85 pp.
• Makadia, R., Farnocchia, D., Chesley, S., Eggl, S. (2025). "A Novel Method for Computing State Transition Matrices due to the Unscented Transform", Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, Issue 37, no. 3 (2025): 1-16.
• Hou, L., Bansal, I., Davis, C., S. Eggl, (2025). “Position and Time Determination without Prior State Knowledge via Onboard Optical Observations of Delta Scuti Variable Stars”, The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Issue 72(2), p.9.
• Sergeyev, A. V., Carry, B., Eggl, S., Berthier, J., Santerne, A., Vachier, F., & Shevchenko, V. G. (2025), Astronomy and Astrophysics, Rotation periods of asteroids serendipitously observed by the NASA/Kepler K2 mission, 703, A302.
• Merritt, S., Fedorets, G., Schwamb, M., Cornwall, S., Bernardinelli, P., Jurić, M., Holman, M., Kurlander, J., Eggl, S., Oldag, D., West, M., Kubica, J., Murtagh, J., Jones, R., Yoachim, P., Lyttle, R., Kelley, M., Moeyens, J., Kiker, K., Naidu, S., Snodgrass, C., Matthews, S., & Chandler, C. (2025), The Journal of Open Source Software, Sorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, 10, 8145.
• Merritt, S. R., Fedorets, G., Schwamb, M. E., Cornwall, S., Bernardinelli, P. H., Jurić, M., Holman, M. J., Kurlander, J. A., Eggl, S., Oldag, D., West, M., Kubica, J., Murtagh, J., Jones, R. L., Yoachim, P., Lyttle, R. R., Kelley, M. S. P., Moeyens, J., Kiker, K., Naidu, S. P., Snodgrass, C., Matthews, S. M., & Chandler, C. O. (2025), The Astronomical Journal, Sorcha: A Solar System Survey Simulator for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, 170, 100.
• Kurlander, J. A., Bernardinelli, P. H., Schwamb, M. E., Juric, M., Murtagh, J., Chandler, C. O., Merritt, S. R., Nesvorný, D., Vokrouhlický, D., Jones, R. L., Fedorets, G., Cornwall, S., Holman, M. J., Eggl, S., Oldag, D., West, M., Kubica, J., Yoachim, P., Moeyens, J., Kiker, K., & Buchanan, L. E. (2025), The Astronomical Journal, Predictions of the LSST Solar System Yield: Near-Earth Objects, Main Belt Asteroids, Jupiter Trojans, and Trans-Neptunian Objects, 170, 99.
• Murtagh, J., Schwamb, M. E., Merritt, S. R., Bernardinelli, P. H., Kurlander, J. A., Cornwall, S., Juric, M., Fedorets, G., Holman, M. J., Eggl, S., Nesvorny, D., Volk, K., Jones, R. L., Yoachim, P., Moeyens, J., Kubica, J., Oldag, D., West, M., & Chandler, C. O. (2025), The Astronomical Journal, Predictions of the LSST Solar System Yield: Discovery Rates and Characterizations of Centaurs, 170, 98.
• Holman, M. J., Bernardinelli, P. H., Schwamb, M. E., Jurić, M., Oldag, D., West, M., Napier, K. J., Merritt, S. R., Fedorets, G., Cornwall, S., Kurlander, J. A., Eggl, S., Kubica, J., Kiker, K., Murtagh, J., Naidu, S. P., & Chandler, C. O. (2025), The Astronomical Journal, Sorcha: Optimized Solar System Ephemeris Generation, 170, 97.
• Wagg, T., Juric, M., Yoachim, P., Kurlander, J., Cornwall, S., Moeyens, J., Eggl, S., Jones, R. L., & Birtwhistle, P. (2025), The Astronomical Journal, Expected Impact of Rubin Observatory LSST on NEO Follow-up, 169, 315.
• Makadia, R., Chesley, S.R., Farnocchia, D.,  Barbee, B.W., Eggl, S. (2025), Icarus, Keyhole-aware target site selection for kinetic impact missions to near-Earth asteroids, 116915, ISSN 0019-1035.

Refereed Conference Papers and Presentations

• Eggl, S. (2025) "The Zero Debris Community Effort: Lessons Learned", United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, UN/SKAO Workshop on Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society 2025, Vienna, Tuesday 9 to Thursday 11 December 2025
• Fawley, D., Putnam, Z, D'Souza, S., Borner, A., Eggl, S. (2025) "Evaluation of Magnet Configurations for Magnetohydrodynamic Trajectory Control during Planetary Entry", AIAA SCITECH 2025 Forum, p. 2239

Professional Societies

• Member of the AIAA. Lead of International Relations in the Space Sustainability Working Group.
• Member of the American Astronomical Society Division on Dynamical Astronomy. The AAS is the main professional society of astronomers in the US.
• Member of the International Academy of Astronautics. The IAA is the main sponsor of the biannual Planetary Defense Conference in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).
• Member of the International Astronomical Union. Co-lead of the Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference. The IAU is the single most important professional society for astronomers. All definitions of astronomical reference systems and standards as well as naming of newly discovered objects and landmarks are provided through IAU committees and voted on by members during the yearly General Assembly. One can only become a member through sponsoring of the national delegation which requires a substantial publication record and contribution to astronomy and astropysics.  

Honors

• LSST Architect Award for substantial contributions to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (08/31/2021)
• Space Foundation 2023 Space Achievement Award with DART Team (02/08/2023)
• AIAA Award for Engineering Excellence with the DART Team. (02/13/2023)
• Asteroid 2000 GT167 named "Eggl" in honor of significant contributions to the field of planetary science. (06/21/2023)
• 2024 Engineering Council Outstanding Advisors (04/27/2024)

Research Honors

• Best paper award at 46th Annual American Astronautical Society’s Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference, Breckenridge, CO, USA (02/08/2024)
• Best paper award at the 9th IAA Planetary Defense Conference, Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa; title: "Design constraints for asteroid deflection campaigns based on delta-V estimation timelines" (05/08/2025)

Recent Courses Taught

• AE 352 - Aerospace Dynamical Systems
• AE 502 - Advanced Orbital Mechanics
• AE 554 (TAM 516) - Dynamical Systems Theory
• AE 598 PE (AE 598 PO) - Planetary Entry