Related papers: High-energy radiation from thunderstorms and light…
The Gamma-Ray Observation of Winter Thunderclouds (GROWTH) collaboration has been performing observation campaigns of high-energy radiation in coastal areas of Japan Sea. Winter thunderstorms in Japan have unique characteristics such as…
The properties (temperature, density, chemical composition, velocity) of hot astrophysical plasma and the physical processes affecting them (heating/cooling, turbulence, shocks, acceleration) can be probed by high resolution X-ray…
Lightning is present in all solar system planets which form clouds in their atmospheres. Cloud formation outside our solar system is possible in objects with much higher temperatures than on Earth or on Jupiter: Brown dwarfs and giant…
Study of energetic cosmic explosions as a part of time domain astronomy is one of the key areas that could be pursued with upcoming Giant segmented optical-IR telescopes with a very large photon collecting area applying cutting edge…
The Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics (Athena) is the X-ray observatory mission selected by ESA within its Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme to address the Hot and Energetic Universe scientific theme. The ESO-Athena Synergy…
In this white paper, we recommend the European Space Agency plays a proactive role in developing a global collaborative effort to construct a large high-contrast imaging space telescope, e.g. as currently under study by NASA. Such a mission…
High-energy SETI pushes astrobiology to its limits, testing the most fundamental needs of life and the most extreme limits of technology. It has lagged behind the rest of the field, but the increased respectability of SETI could spark…
LOX is a lunar-orbiting astrophysics mission that will probe the cosmos at MeV energies. It is guided by open questions regarding thermonuclear, or Type-Ia, supernovae (SNeIa) and will characterize these inherently radioactive objects by…
In this new era of time-domain and multi-messenger astronomy, various new transients and new phenomena are constantly being discovered thanks to the rapid advances in observations, which provide the excellent opportunity to study the…
A lightning mapping system based on perpendicular crossed baseline interferometer (ITF) technology has been developed rapidly in recent years. Several processing methods have been proposed to estimate the temporal location and spatial map…
Thanks to high-resolution and non-dispersive spectrometers onboard future X-ray missions such as XRISM and Athena, we are finally poised to answer important questions about the formation and evolution of galaxies and large-scale structure.…
The workhorse instruments of the 8-10m class observatories have become their multi-object spectrographs (MOS), providing comprehensive follow-up to both ground-based and space-borne imaging. With the advent of deeper imaging surveys from,…
(ABRIDGED) The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will measure the spectra of distant extragalactic sources of high energy gamma-rays. GLAST can look for energy dependent propagation effects from such sources as a signal of…
The next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT), with diameters up to 39 meters, will start opera- tion in the next decade and promises new challenges in the development of instruments. The growing field of astrophotonics (the use…
The characterization of nearby rocky exoplanets will become feasible with the next generation of telescopes, such as the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and the mission concept Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Using an improved model…
The recent development of high average, high peak power lasers has revived the effort of using lasers as a potential tool to influence natural lightning. Although impressive, the current progress in laser lightning control technology may…
The hard X-ray sky now being studied by INTEGRAL and Swift and soon by NuSTAR is rich with energetic phenomena and highly variable non-thermal phenomena on a broad range of timescales. The High Energy Telescope (HET) on the proposed…
The great success of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) has given us a new probe to study strong gravitational fields and to measure the physical properties of black holes and neutron stars. Here, we describe a "next-generation" x-ray…
The LUXE experiment aims at studying high-field QED in electron-laser and photon-laser interactions, with the 16.5 GeV electron beam of the European XFEL and a laser beam with power of up to 350 TW. The experiment will measure the spectra…
Lightning has been suggested to play a role in triggering the occurrence of bio-ready chemical species. Future missions (PLATO, ARIEL, HWO, LIFE) and ground-based ELTs will investigate the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets. We…