Related papers: Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Galaxies Science R…

Understanding cosmic acceleration is one of the key science drivers for astrophysics and high-energy physics in the coming decade (2014 P5 Report). With the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument…

Exploration of the time domain - variable and transient objects and phenomena - is rapidly becoming a vibrant research frontier, touching on essentially every field of astronomy and astrophysics, from the Solar system to cosmology. Time…

This white paper summarizes the conclusions of the Snowmass White Paper "Spectroscopic Needs for Imaging Dark Energy Experiments" (arXiv:1309.5384) which are relevant to the calibration of LSST photometric redshifts; i.e., the accurate…

The wide-field spectroscopic survey telescope (WST) is proposed to become the next large optical/near infrared facility for the European Southern Observatory (ESO) once the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has become operational. While the…

Over the past decade, research in resolved stellar populations has made great strides in exploring the nature of dark matter, in unraveling the star formation, chemical enrichment, and dynamical histories of the Milky Way and nearby…

The large surveys and sensitive instruments of modern astronomy are turning ever more examples of variable objects, many of which are extending the parameter space to testing theories of stellar evolution and accretion. Future projects such…

Cosmology offers opportunities to test Dark Matter independently of its interactions with the Standard Model. We study the imprints of long-range forces acting solely in the dark sector on the distribution of galaxies, the so-called Large…

The 4MOST Cosmology Redshift Survey (CRS) will perform stringent cosmological tests via spectroscopic clustering measurements that will complement the best lensing, cosmic microwave background and other surveys in the southern hemisphere.…

The Galactic center offers us a unique opportunity to test General Relativity (GR) with the orbits of stars around a supermassive black hole. Observations of these stars have been one of the great successes of adaptive optics on 8-10 m…

The current role of data-driven science is constantly increasing its importance within Astrophysics, due to the huge amount of multi-wavelength data collected every day, characterized by complex and high-volume information requiring…

Transmission spectra probe the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets, but these observations are also subject to signals introduced by magnetic active regions on host stars. Here we outline scientific opportunities in the next decade for…

We review the unique cosmological implications of the XMM-LSS survey in association with its multi-WL follow-up: (1) Large Scale Structures traced by X-ray clusters and AGNs, optical galaxies, weak lensing as well as Sunyaev-Zel'dovich…

In support of the National Acadamies' Exoplanet Science Strategy, this whitepaper outlines key technology challenges for studying the diversity of worlds in the Galaxy and in searching for habitable planets. Observations of habitable…

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,…

Strong gravitational lenses provide an important tool to measure masses in the distant Universe, thus testing models for galaxy formation and dark matter; to investigate structure at the Epoch of Reionization; and to measure the Hubble…

The LSPE is a balloon-borne mission aimed at measuring the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at large angular scales, and in particular to constrain the curl component of CMB polarization (B-modes) produced by tensor…

Distant objects in the solar system are crucial to better understand the history and evolution of its outskirts. The stellar occultation technique allows the determination of their sizes and shapes with kilometric accuracy, a detailed…

Over the past century, major advances in astronomy and astrophysics have been largely driven by improvements in instrumentation and data collection. With the amassing of high quality data from new telescopes, and especially with the advent…

Started approximately in the late 1980s, exoplanetology has up to now unveiled the main gross bulk characteristics of planets and planetary systems. In the future it will benefit from more and more large telescopes and advanced space…

Selected results obtained in major observational sky surveys (DSS, 2MASS, 2dF, SDSS) and deep field observations (HDF, GOODS, HUDF, etc.) are reviewed. Modern surveys provide information on the characteristics and space distribution of…