Related papers: Pushing the limit of instrument capabilities
Gaia is a cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) selected in 2000, with a target launch date of 2011. The Gaia mission will perform a survey of about 1 billion sources brighter than V=20. Its goal is to provide astrometry…
During the last decade, the understanding of fine features of the structure and evolution of stars has become possible as a result of enormous progress made in the acquisition of high-quality observational and experimental data and of new…
Magnetic chemically peculiar (mCP) stars are important to astrophysics because their complex atmospheres lend themselves perfectly to the investigation of the interplay between such diverse phenomena as atomic diffusion, magnetic fields,…
As the panel on Planetary Systems and Star Formation (PSF) is fully aware, the next decade will see major advances in our understanding of these areas of research. To quote from their charge, these advances will occur in studies of solar…
Modern astrophysics is undergoing a revolution. As detector technology has advanced, and astronomers have been able to study the sky with finer temporal detail, a rich diversity of sources which vary on timescales from years down to a few…
There has been tremendous progress in observing oscillations in solar-type stars. In a few short years we have moved from ambiguous detections to firm measurements. We briefly review the recent results, most of which have come from…
The different research teams involved in the study of delta Sct stars have slightly changed their strategy in the past years. The observational effort to secure worldwide coverage of case studies is continued, but the specifications become…
It is a pity that the real state of matter in pulsar-like stars is still not determined confidently because of the uncertainty about cold matter at supranuclear density, even 40 years after the discovery of pulsar. Nuclear matter (related…
The spectacular data delivered by NASA's {\it Kepler} mission have not only boosted the discovery of planets orbiting other stars, but they have opened a window on the inner workings of the stars themselves. For the study of the RR Lyrae…
Due to its unique long-term coverage and high photometric precision, observations from the Kepler asteroseismic investigation will provide us with the possibility to sound stellar cycles in a number of solar-type stars with…
Problems solved? Pulsar research must be considered - 35 years after the detection of pulsars - a mature science, where the basic questions have been raised and discussed. One would hope that many if not all generic and important problems…
We highlight recent theoretical and observational progress in several areas of neutron star astrophysics, and discuss the prospect for advances in the next decade.
The sheer number of new gamma-ray pulsar discoveries by the Fermi Large Area Telescope since 2008, combined with the quality of new multi-frequency data, has caused a revolution in the field of high-energy rotation-powered pulsars. These…
The authors discuss potential remarkable achievements for pulsar science with the FAST (pulsar monitoring, timing and searching, as well as others related), and expect a FAST era of pulsar science to come.
The Kepler space telescope has revolutionised our knowledge about exoplanets and stars and is continuing to do so in the K2 mission. The exquisite photometric precision, together with the long, uninterrupted observations opened up a new way…
Stellar occultations provide a powerful tool to explore objects of the outer solar system. The Gaia mission now provides milli-arcsec accuracy on the predictions of these events and makes possible observations that were previously…
Gaia is a very ambitious mission of the European Space Agency. At the heart of Gaia lie the measurements of the positions, distances, space motions, brightnesses and astrophysical parameters of stars, which represent fundamental pillars of…
In stellar astrophysics, the study of the atmospheres of early-type stars plays a very special role. The atmospheres of these stars display a variety of different phenomena, such as the presence of large magnetic fields, strong surface…
The Gaia mission is expected to provide highly accurate astrometric, photometric, and spectroscopic measurements for about $10^9$ objects. Automated classification of detected sources is a key part of the data processing. Here a few aspects…
We present a brief review of Chandra X-ray Observatory observations of neutron stars. The outstanding spatial and spectral resolution of this great observatory have allowed for observations of unprecedented clarity and accuracy. Many of…