Related papers: PIONIER: a status report
Radio pulsars have been responsible for many astonishing astrophysical and fundamental physics breakthroughs since their discovery 50 years ago. In this review I will discuss many of the highlights, most of which were only possible because…
The {\em Solar Orbiter} is the next solar physics mission of the European Space Agency, ESA, in collaboration with NASA, with a launch planned in 2018. The spacecraft is designed to approach the Sun to within 0.28\,AU at perihelion of a…
Lunar laser ranging has provided many of the best tests of gravitation since the first Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon. The march to higher precision continues to this day, now entering the millimeter regime, and promising continued…
ESPRESSO is the new high-resolution spectrograph of ESO's Very-Large Telescope (VLT). It was designed for ultra-high radial-velocity precision and extreme spectral fidelity with the aim of performing exoplanet research and fundamental…
The ESPRI project relies on the astrometric capabilities offered by the PRIMA facility of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer for the discovery and study of planetary systems. Our survey consists of obtaining high-precision astrometry…
This contribution to the proceedings of "A New Golden Age for Radio Astronomy" is simply intended to give some of the highlights from pulsar observations with LOFAR at the time of its official opening: June 12th, 2010. These observations…
The virtual observatory (VO) is a collection of interoperable data archives, tools and applications that together form an environment in which original astronomical research can be carried out. The VO is opening up new ways of exploiting…
LISA is a space-based mHz gravitational-wave observatory, with a planned launch in 2034. It is expected to be the first detector of its kind, and will present unique challenges in instrumentation and data analysis. An accurate preflight…
The emergence of time-domain multi-messenger (astro)physics requires for new, improved ways of interchanging scheduling information, in order to allow more efficient collaborations between the various teams. Currently space- and…
We report on the status of the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the plans and progress towards Enhanced and Advanced LIGO. The initial LIGO detectors have finished a two year long data run during which a full…
The Pierre Auger Observatory has begun a major Upgrade of its already impressive capabilities, with an emphasis on improved mass composition determination using the surface detectors of the Observatory. Known as AugerPrime, the upgrade will…
The near-Earth energetic particle environment has been monitored since the 1970's. With the increasing importance of quantifying the radiation risk for, e.g. for the human exploration of the Moon and Mars, it is essential to continue and…
A next-generation lunar laser ranging apparatus using the 3.5 m telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in southern New Mexico has begun science operation. APOLLO (the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation) has achieved…
Robo-AO is the first autonomous laser adaptive optics system and science instrument operating on sky. With minimal human oversight, the system robotically executes large scale surveys, monitors long-term astrophysical dynamics and…
Solar Orbiter is a joint ESA-NASA mission planed for launch in October 2018. The science payload includes remote-sensing and in-situ instrumentation designed with the primary goal of understanding how the Sun creates and controls the…
SPIDER is a balloon-borne instrument designed to map the cosmic microwave background at degree-angular scales in the presence of Galactic foregrounds. SPIDER has mapped a large sky area in the Southern Hemisphere using more than 2000…
With its Planetary Space Weather Service (PSWS), the Europlanet-H2020 Research Insfrastructure (EPN2020RI) project is proposing a compelling set of databases and tools to that provides Space Weather forecasting throughout the Solar System.…
We review the origins of the Virtual Observatory (VO) concept, and the current status of the efforts in this field. VO is the response of the astronomical community to the challenges posed by the modern massive and complex data sets. It is…
An earlier study of the Kepler Mission noise properties on time scales of primary relevance to detection of exoplanet transits found that higher than expected noise followed to a large extent from the stars, rather than instrument or data…
Systematic surveys of astronomical objects often lead to discoveries, but always provide invaluable information for statistical studies of well-defined samples. They also promote follow-up investigations of individual objects or classes.…