Michelle Creech-Eakman
The lunar surface is a compelling location for large, distributed optical facilities, with significant advantages over orbital facilities for high spatial resolution astrophysics. The serious development of mission concepts is timely…
This report presents the findings of a NIAC Phase I feasibility study for the Artemis-enabled Stellar Imager (AeSI), a proposed high-resolution, UV/Optical interferometer designed for deployment on the lunar surface. Its primary science…
NASA's return to the Moon presents unparalleled opportunities to advance high-impact scientific capabilities. At the cutting edge of these possibilities are extremely high-resolution interferometric observations at visible and ultraviolet…
We summarize some of the compelling new scientific opportunities for understanding stars and stellar systems that can be enabled by sub-milliarcsec (sub-mas) angular resolution, UV-Optical spectral imaging observations, which can reveal the…
Super-high spatial resolution observations in the infrared are now enabling major advances in our understanding of supermassive black hole systems at the centers of galaxies. Infrared interferometry, reaching resolutions of milliarcseconds…
Evolved stars dominate galactic spectra, enrich the galactic medium, expand to change their planetary systems, eject winds of a complex nature, produce spectacular nebulae and illuminate them, and transfer material between binary…
The lowest-mass stars, brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets span a minimum in the mass-radius relationship that probes the fundamental physics of extreme states of matter, magnetism, and fusion. This White Paper outlines scientific…
The Planet Formation Imager (PFI, www.planetformationimager.org) is a next-generation infrared interferometer array with the primary goal of imaging the active phases of planet formation in nearby star forming regions. PFI will be sensitive…
The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) Project has formed a Technical Working Group (TWG) to explore possible facility architectures to meet the primary PFI science goal of imaging planet formation in situ in nearby star- forming regions. The…
Estimation of bolometric fluxes (F_BOL) is an essential component of stellar effective temperature determination with optical and near-infrared interferometry. Reliable estimation of F_BOL simply from broad-band K-band photometry data is a…
We present a $40\,$ks Chandra observation of the IRAS$\,$20126+4104 core region. In the inner $6^{\prime\prime}$ two X-ray sources were detected, which are coincident with the radio jet source I20S and the variable radio source I20Var. No…
We describe the scientific motivation for and conceptual design of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer, an imaging interferometer designed to operate at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The rationale for the major technical…
We present a review of the interplay between the evolution of circumstellar disks and the formation of planets, both from the perspective of theoretical models and dedicated observations. Based on this, we identify and discuss fundamental…
Mass is constantly being recycled in the universe. One of the most powerful recycling paths is via stellar mass-loss. All stars exhibit mass loss with rates ranging from ~10(-14) to 10(-4) M(sun) yr-1, depending on spectral type, luminosity…