Related papers: WFIRST-2.4: What Every Astronomer Should Know
In this paper we present the first on-sky results with the fibered aperture masking instrument FIRST. Its principle relies on the combination of spatial filtering and aperture masking using single-mode fibers, a novel technique that is…
Upgrades at the 2.3 meter Wyoming Infrared Observatory telescope have provided the capability for fully-remote operations by a single operator from the University of Wyoming campus. A line-of-sight 300 Megabit/s 11 GHz radio link provides…
To ensure progress in astronomy over the coming decades, the key questions are "what facilities will we build, and when?" Toward this end, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) recently commissioned a study on…
Off-axis telescopes with unobstructed pupils offer great advantages in terms of emissivity, throughput, and diffractionlimited energy concentration. For most telescope designs, implementation of an off-axis configuration imposes enormous…
The Jiao Tong University Spectroscopic Telescope (JUST) is a 4.4-meter f/6.0 segmentedmirror telescope dedicated to spectroscopic observations. The JUST primary mirror is composed of 18 hexagonal segments, each with a diameter of 1.1 m.…
We review the next generation Japanese infrared space mission, ASTRO-F. ASTRO-F will be the first survey of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths since the IRAS mission almost 20 years ago. ASTRO-F will survey the entire sky in 4…
Far-infrared (far-IR) astrophysics missions featuring actively cooled telescopes will offer orders of magnitude observing speed improvement at wavelengths where galaxies and forming planetary systems emit most of their light. The PRobe…
High Definition Astrometry (0.1 - 1.0 micro-arcseconds) will open a new window into neighboring planetary systems. For the first time, the realm of temperate terrestrial worlds will be explored. This includes Earth Analogs, thereby allowing…
The Astro2020 decadal survey recommended an infrared, optical, ultra-violet (IR/O/UV) telescope with a $\sim$6~m inscribed diameter and equipped with a coronagraph instrument to directly image exoEarths in the habitable zone of their host…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large (6.6m), cold (50K), infrared-optimized space observatory that will be launched early in the next decade. The observatory will have four instruments: a near-infrared camera, a near-infrared…
(abridged) A complete census of planetary systems around a volume-limited sample of solar-type stars (FGK dwarfs) in the Solar neighborhood with uniform sensitivity down to Earth-mass planets within their Habitable Zones out to several AUs…
In this study, we explore and review the scientific potential for exoplanet characterization by a high-contrast optical coronagraph on WFIRST/AFTA. We suggest that the heterogeneity in albedo spectra and planet/star flux ratios as a…
Current time-domain wide-field sky surveys generally operate with few-degree-sized fields and take many individual images to cover large sky areas each night. We present the design and project status of the Evryscope ("wide-seer"), which…
ULTIMATE-Subaru (Ultra-wide Laser Tomographic Imager and MOS with AO for Transcendent Exploration on Subaru) and WFIRST (Wide Field Infra-Red Survey Telescope) are the next generation near-infrared instruments that have a large…
In this Roadmap, we present a vision for the future of submillimetre and millimetre astronomy in the United Kingdom over the next decade and beyond. This Roadmap has been developed in response to the recommendation of the Astronomy Advisory…
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…
Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST), with a powerful sky survey capability in the northern hemisphere, will play an important role in asteroid searching and monitoring. However, WFST is not a telescope dedicated to near-Earth asteroids…
High-contrast imaging observations of large angular diameter stars enable complementary science questions to be addressed compared to the baseline goals of proposed missions like the Terrestrial Planet Finder-Coronagraph, New World's…
The proposed design for PILOT is a general-purpose, wide-field 1 degree 2.4m, f/10 Ritchey-Chretien telescope, with fast tip-tilt guiding, for use 0.5-25 microns. The design allows both wide-field and diffraction-limited use at these…
Although far-IR -- mm-wave astronomy has now been developing for several decades, access to this portion of the spectrum remains difficult and limited. Relative to their optical-wavelength counterparts, the submillimeter observatories are…