Related papers: The Origins Space Telescope
With its immensity and numerous mysteries waiting to be solved, the cosmos has always captivated humankind. A ground-breaking field that has given us a profound understanding of the mysteries of the cosmos is radio astronomy. This paper…
Lynx is the next-generation observatory which will provide unprecedented X-ray vision into the otherwise invisible Universe to gain understanding of origins and physics of the cosmos. Lynx will see the dawn of black holes, reveal what…
Gravitational-wave astronomy has revolutionized humanity's view of the universe, a revolution driven by observations that no other field can make. This white paper describes an observatory that builds on decades of investment by the…
There are two big questions cosmologists would like to answer -- How does the Universe work, and what are its origin and destiny? A long wavelength gravitational wave detector -- with million km interferometer arms, achievable only from…
Over the past decade, neutrino astronomy has emerged as a new window into the extreme and hidden universe. Current-generation experiments have detected high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin and identified the first sources, opening…
With the discovery of galaxies that existed when the universe was very young (approximately 5 percent of its current age), of planets not in our own solar system, and with the tantalizing evidence that the conditions for life may have…
Far-infrared astronomy has advanced rapidly since its inception in the late 1950's, driven by a maturing technology base and an expanding community of researchers. This advancement has shown that observations at far-infrared wavelengths are…
4MOST (4m Multi Object Spectroscopic Telescope) is a spectroscopic facility that will be installed on ESO's VISTA around 2020. The science rationale of this facility are to be found in the ASTRONET Science Vision for European Astronomy (de…
We report results of a recently-completed pre-Formulation Phase study of SPIRIT, a candidate NASA Origins Probe mission. SPIRIT is a spatial and spectral interferometer with an operating wavelength range 25 - 400 microns. SPIRIT will…
I review the status of science with wide field surveys. For many decades surveys have been the backbone of astronomy, and the main engine of discovery, as we have mapped the sky at every possible wavelength. Surveys are an efficient use of…
The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, is an infrared observatory of novel design: deployable, with active optics, fully open to space for radiative cooling and orbiting the Lagrange point no. 2. This article explains the…
The new frontier of cosmology will be led by three-dimensional surveys of the large-scale structure of the Universe. Based on its all-sky surveys and redshift depth, the SKA is destined to revolutionize cosmology, in combination with future…
Ground-based telescopes coupled with adaptive optics (AO) have been playing a leading role in exoplanet direct imaging science and technological development for the past two decades and will continue to have an indispensable role for the…
The Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA's Great Observatory for infrared astronomy, was launched 2003 August 25 and is returning excellent scientific data from its Earth-trailing solar orbit. Spitzer combines the intrinsic sensitivity achievable…
The number of small satellites has grown dramatically in the past decade from tens of satellites per year in the mid-2010s to a projection of tens of thousands in orbit by the mid-2020s. This presents both problems and opportunities for…
In his Nobel Prize lecture Victor Hess urged that different instruments, working together, should be used to solve the problem of the origin of cosmic rays. I review some of the key developments that have opened up the new fields of direct…
SPACE (SPectroscopic All-sky Cosmic Explorer) is a class-M mission proposed to ESA for the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 call and recently promoted to the next assessment study phase. SPACE will produce the first all-sky spectroscopic survey of…
THESEUS, one of the two space mission concepts being studied by ESA as candidates for next M5 mission within its Comsic Vision programme, aims at fully exploiting Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) to solve key questions about the early Universe, as…
The outer solar system provides a unique, quiet vantage point from which to observe the universe around us, where measurements could enable several niche astrophysical science cases that are too difficult to perform near Earth. NASA's New…
The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) International Observatory (TIO) will be a revolutionary leap forward in astronomical observing capabilities, enabling us to address some of the most profound questions about the universe. From unraveling the…