Related papers: Multi-wavelength surveys towards the SKA pathfinde…

This lecture briefly reviews the major recent advances in radio astronomy made possible by ultra-deep surveys, reaching microJansky flux density levels. A giant step forward in many fields, including the study of the evolution of the cosmic…

The next decade of survey astronomy has the potential to transform our knowledge of variable stars. Stellar variability underpins our knowledge of the cosmological distance ladder, and provides direct tests of stellar formation and…

The wide-field spectroscopic survey telescope (WST) is proposed to become the next large optical/near infrared facility for the European Southern Observatory (ESO) once the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has become operational. While the…

Future prospects in observational galaxy evolution are reviewed from a personal perspective. New insights will especially come from high-redshift integral field kinematic data and similar low-redshift observations in very large and…

The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) will enable studies of star formation in nearby galaxies with a level of detail never before possible outside of the Milky Way. Because the earliest stages of stellar evolution are often inaccessible at…

Strong gravitational lenses provide an important tool to measure masses in the distant Universe, thus testing models for galaxy formation and dark matter; to investigate structure at the Epoch of Reionization; and to measure the Hubble…

Radio surveys typically sample extragalactic sources in higher redshift regimes than is typical for optical surveys, resulting in many radio sources not having a detected optical counterpart. Over the next decade the Legacy Survey of Space…

The EXTraS project (Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky) will harvest the hitherto unexplored temporal domain information buried in the serendipitous data collected by the European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) instrument onboard…

I present simple but robust estimates of the types of sources making up the faint, sub-microJy radio sky. These include, not surprisingly, star-forming galaxies and radio-quiet AGN but also two "new" populations, that is low radio power…

The concept of a Square Kilometre Array was developed to ensure that progress in Radio Astronomy in the early 21st Century continued at the same impressive pace as was achieved during the first 50 years. The SKA telescope is designed to…

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) has been designed in order to satisfy several different scientific objectives that can be addressed by a ten-year synoptic sky survey. However, LSST will also provide a large amount of data that…

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will enable revolutionary studies of galaxies, dark matter, and black holes over cosmic time. The LSST Galaxies Science Collaboration has identified a host of preparatory research tasks required to…

The far-infrared (far-IR) spectral window plays host to a wide range of spectroscopic diagnostics with which to study planetary disk systems and exoplanets at wavelengths completely blocked by the Earth atmosphere. These include the thermal…

The cosmological case for a next generation radio observatory, the Square Kilometer Array, is discussed and reviewed. An instrument like the SKA would be able to measure galaxy redshifts of normal late-type galaxies, via the 21 cm line of…

(Abridged) We consider the scientific case for a large aperture (10-12m class) optical spectroscopic survey telescope with a field of view comparable to that of LSST. Such a facility could enable transformational progress in several areas…

This chapter provides an overview of the possibilities for transient and variable-source astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array. While subsequent chapters focus on the astrophysics of individual events, we focus on the broader…

Looking ahead to the next decade and imagining the landscape of astronomy in 2020, it is clear that astronomical surveys, large and small, plus extensive follow-up projects, will be a great engine of progress in our profession. Surveys have…

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an integral part of the next-generation observatories that will survey the Universe across the electromagnetic spectrum, and beyond, revolutionizing our view of fundamental physics, astrophysics and…

The substantial decrease in star formation density from z=1 to the present day is curious given the relatively constant neutral gas density over the same epoch. Future radio astronomy facilities, including the SKA and pathfinder telescopes,…

The Herschel Satellite and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) are two very large sub-mm and far infrared (FIR) astronomy projects that are expected to come into operation in this decade. This report contains descriptions of these…