English

Sub-Microarcsecond Astrometry with SIM-Lite: A Testbed-based Performance Assessment

Astrophysics 2015-05-13 v1

Abstract

SIM-Lite is an astrometric interferometer being designed for sub-microarcsecond astrometry, with a wide range of applications from searches for Earth-analogs to determining the distribution of dark matter. SIM-Lite measurements can be limited by random and systematic errors, as well as astrophysical noise. In this paper we focus on instrument systematic errors and report results from SIM-Lite's interferometer testbed. We find that, for narrow-angle astrometry such as used for planet finding, the end-of-mission noise floor for SIM-Lite is below 0.035 uas.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0812.1530,
  title  = {Sub-Microarcsecond Astrometry with SIM-Lite: A Testbed-based Performance Assessment},
  author = {M. Shao and B. Nemati},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0812.1530},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

5 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:49:31.236Z