Related papers: The NASA Infrared Telescope Facility
I will discuss the motivations for Neutrino Astronomy and its prospects given the current experimental scenario, which is the main focus of this paper. I will also go through the first results of the IceCube detector deep in the ice and of…
This article provides a brief overview of the Spitzer Space Telescope and discusses its initial scientific results on galactic and solar system science.
The infrared sky from space is the sum of a cosmic signal from galaxies, quasars, and perhaps more exotic sources; and foregrounds from the Milky Way and from the Solar System. At a distance of 1 AU from the Sun, the foreground from…
This is a report on the findings of the technology working group for the white paper on the status and future of TeV gamma-ray astronomy. The white paper is an APS commissioned document, and the overall version has also been released and…
The simple physics of microlensing provides a well-understood tool with which to probe the atmospheres of distant stars in the Galaxy and Local Group with high magnification and resolution. Recent results in measuring stellar surface…
Science opportunities and recommendations concerning optical/infrared polarimetry for the upcoming decade in the fields of stars and stellar evolution. Community-based White Paper to Astro2010 in response to the call for such papers.
So far, high resolution techniques on the one hand provide morphological information on bright nearby objects. On the other hand, telescopes with large collecting areas allow us to detect very faint and distant objects, but not to obtain a…
The Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) is one of three science instruments on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The IRS comprises four separate spectrograph modules covering the wavelength range from 5.3 to 38micron with spectral resolutions, R \~90…
Present and upcoming NASA missions will be intensively observing a selected, partially overlapping set of stars for exoplanet studies. Key physical and chemical information about these stars and their systems is needed for planning…
A new all-sky visible and Near-InfraRed (NIR) space astrometry mission with a wavelength cutoff in the K-band is not just focused on a single or small number of key science cases. Instead, it is extremely broad, answering key science…
This report describes the 2014 study by the Science Definition Team (SDT) of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission. It is a space observatory that will address the most compelling scientific problems in dark energy,…
With the launch of ESA's INTEGRAL satellite in october 2002, a gamma-ray observatory will be placed in orbit providing a multiwavelength coverage from a few keV up to 10 MeV for the study of high energy phenomena in the universe. Among the…
Sky survey telescopes and powerful targeted telescopes play complementary roles in astronomy. In order to investigate the nature and characteristics of the motions of very faint objects, a flexibly-pointed instrument capable of high…
The SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) is a proposed mid-to-far infrared (4-200 um) astronomy mission, scheduled for launch in 2017. A single, 3.5m aperture telescope would provide superior image quality at…
The InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is a first-light instrument being designed for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). IRIS is a combination of an imager that will cover a 16.4" field of view at the diffraction limit of TMT (4 mas…
An overview of the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) is presented. Emphasis is on current capabilities of direct interest to the scientific user community, including instruments. Educational services and prospects and strategies for the future…
Einstein Telescope (ET) is a possible third generation ground-based gravitational wave observatory for which a design study is currently being carried out. A brief (and non-exhaustive) overview is given of ET's projected capabilities…
We study the sensitivities of space infrared interferometers. We formulate the signal-to-noise ratios of infrared images obtained by aperture synthesis in the presence of source shot noise, background shot noise and detector read noise. We…
There is an opportunity to advance both solar system and extrasolar planetary studies that does not require the construction of new telescopes or new missions but better use and access to inter-disciplinary data sets. This approach…
The two major functions in galaxy evolution that we would like to measure are the stellar populations in galaxies, and their time-derivative, the star formation rate. Especially at redshifts above 1, both of these measures are benefiting…