Related papers: Interferometry from Space: A Great Dream
Long-baseline interferometry at optical and near-infrared wavelengths is an emerging technology which is quickly becoming a useful tool to investigate stellar atmospheres and to compare observations with models. Stellar atmosphere models…
Stellar Intensity Interferometry is a technique based on the measurement of the second order spatial correlation of the light emitted from a star. The physical information provided by these measurements is the angular size and structure of…
Gaia is currently revolutionizing modern astronomy. However, much of the Galactic plane, center and the spiral arm regions are obscured by interstellar extinction, rendering them inaccessible because Gaia is an optical instrument. An…
The Gaia all-sky astrometric survey is challenged by several issues affecting the spacecraft stability. Amongst them, we find the focus evolution, straylight and basic angle variations Contrary to pre-launch expectations, the image quality…
The sensitivity and astrometry upgrade ASTRA of the Keck Interferometer is introduced. After a brief overview of the underlying interferometric principles, the technology and concepts of the upgrade are presented. The interferometric…
Interferometric experiments of the reionization era offer the advantages of measuring power in spatial modes with increased sensitivity afforded by multiple independent sky measurements. Here we review early work to measure this signal,…
The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, is the largest flying observatory ever built,consisting of a 2.7-meter diameter telescope embedded in a modified Boeing 747-SP aircraft. SOFIA is a joint project between NASA…
High spatial resolution is the key for the understanding various astrophysical phenomena. But even with the future E-ELT, single dish instruments are limited to a spatial resolution of about 4 mas in the visible. For the closest objects…
Since their first discovery in the late 1960s, Gamma-ray bursts have attracted an exponentially growing interest from the international community due to their central role in the most highly debated open questions of the modern research of…
In early 2024, ESA formally adopted the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) space mission with the aim of measuring gravitational waves emitted in the millihertz range. The constellation employs three spacecraft that exchange laser…
A new mission about twenty years after Gaia with similar astrometric performance would be important for all branches of astronomy. The two missions together would, e.g., give much more accurate motions of the common objects due to the large…
In real telescopes, the optical parameters evolve with time, and the degradation is often not uniform. This introduces variations in the image profile and therefore photo-centre displacements which, unless corrected, may result in…
Gaia is a satellite mission of the European Space Agency which is creating a catalogue of extremely accurate positions, distances and space motions of two billion stars in our Galaxy, along with more than one hundred thousand solar system…
Astrometry is a powerful technique to study the populations of extrasolar planets around nearby stars. It gives access to a unique parameter space and is therefore required for obtaining a comprehensive picture of the properties,…
The space-time correlations of streams of photons can provide fundamentally new channels of information about the Universe. Today's astronomical observations essentially measure certain amplitude coherence functions produced by a source.…
Astrometry is one of the oldest branches of astronomy which measures the position, the proper motion and parallax of celestial objects. Following the Hipparcos and Gaia missions that have measured several billions of them using global…
Highest resolution imaging in astronomy is achieved by interferometry, connecting telescopes over increasingly longer distances, and at successively shorter wavelengths. Here, we present the first diffraction-limited images in visual light,…
ESA and NASA are studying projects having a tremendous return on variable star research. Other national space agencies are also studying or developing projects of smaller costs but with impressive returns. The projects range from global…
Over the last 20 years Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor interferometric astrometry has produced precise and accurate parallaxes of astrophysical interesting stars and mass estimates for stellar companions. We review parallax…
Overview of the determination of astronomical distances from a metrological standpoint. Distances are considered from the Solar System (planetary distances) to extragalactic distances, with a special emphasis on the fundamental step of the…