Related papers: The Sooner: a Large Robotic Telescope
Cosmology is intrinsically intertwined with questions in fundamental physics. The existence of non-baryonic dark matter requires new physics beyond the Standard Model of elemenatary-particle interactions and Einstein's general relativity,…
A new 10 meter diameter telescope is being constructed for deployment at the NSF South Pole research station. The telescope is designed for conducting large-area millimeter and sub-millimeter wave surveys of faint, low contrast emission, as…
Remote-sensing observations of Solar System objects with a space telescope offer a key method of understanding celestial bodies and contributing to planetary formation and evolution theories. The capabilities of Twinkle, a space telescope…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is optimized for observations in the near and mid infrared and will provide essential observations for targets that cannot be conducted from the ground or other missions during its lifetime. The state…
Observatories are complex scientific and technical institutions serving diverse users and purposes. Their telescopes, instruments, software, and human resources engage in interwoven workflows over a broad range of timescales. These…
This paper examines options for orbit configurations for a space interferometer. In contrast to previously presented concepts for space very long baseline interferometry, we propose a combination of regular and retrograde near-Earth…
With the advent of large, deep surveys, the observation of a strongly gravitationally lensed supernova becomes increasingly likely. High-redshift surveys continue apace, with a handful of type Ia supernovae observed to date at redshifts of…
We analyze photometric observations of stars, which experienced microlensing events at the considered time, in order to compare the efficiency of detecting exoplanets in observations performed at thirteen different telescopes and with…
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be a discovery machine for the astronomy and physics communities, revealing astrophysical phenomena from the Solar System to the outer reaches of the observable Universe. While many…
With the development of high contrast imaging techniques and infrared detectors, vast efforts have been devoted during the past decade to detect and characterize lighter, cooler and closer companions to nearby stars, and ultimately image…
Ultraviolet (UV) planetary astronomy is a unique tool to probe planetary environments of the solar system and beyond. But despite a rising interest for new generation giant UV telescopes regularly proposed to international agencies, none…
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will provide for unbiased sampling of variability properties of objects with $r$ mag $<$ 24. This should allow for those objects whose variations reveal their orbital periods ($P_{orb}$), such as…
On small scales the observable Universe is highly inhomogeneous, with galaxies and clusters forming a complex web of voids and filaments. The optical properties of such configurations can be quite different from the perfectly smooth…
The National Academy Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS) made a recommendation to study a large/medium-class dedicated space telescope for planetary science, going beyond the Discovery-class dedicated planetary space…
Earth is constantly being bombarded with material from space. Most of the natural material end up being dust grains that litter the surface of Earth, but larger bodies are known to impact every few decades. The most recent large impact was…
The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) is a project dedicated to identifying optical counter-parts to gravitational-wave detections using a network of dedicated, wide-field telescopes. After almost a decade of design,…
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope with its main instrument onboard, the Large Area Telescope (LAT), opened a new era in high-energy astrophysics and in particular for the study of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), which are short flashes of -rays…
Observations of high redshift type Ia supernovae (SNe) will enable us to probe the structure of galaxy halos and the composition of dark matter. The future prospects for this field are briefly discussed here. First the ability of SN…
The TOLIMAN project is engaged with the construction, launch and operation of a low-cost space telescope of unorthodox optical design. Its primary science goal targets an exhaustive search for temperate-orbit rocky planets around either…
In a companion article, we discussed the radiometric sensitivity and resolution of a new passive optical sensing technique, Space-Time Projection Optical Tomography (SPOT), to detect and track sub-cm and larger space debris for Space…