Related papers: Astro2020 Science White Paper: High Angular Resolu…
Precise measurements of the fundamental properties of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs are key to understanding the physics underlying their formation and evolution. While there has been great progress over the last decade in studying the…
The high accuracy of modern space astrometry requires the use of General Relativity to model the propagation of stellar light through the gravitational field encountered from a source to a given observer inside the Solar System. In this…
Seismology of stars that exhibit solar-like oscillations develops a growing interest with the wealth of observational results obtained with the CoRoT and Kepler space-borne missions. In this framework, relations between asteroseismic…
Determining the physical properties of microlensing events depends on having accurate angular sizes of the source star. Using long-baseline optical interferometry we are able to measure the angular sizes of nearby stars with uncertainties…
The answers to fundamental science questions in astrophysics, ranging from the history of the expansion of the universe to the sizes of nearby stars, hinge on our ability to make precise measurements of diverse astronomical objects. As our…
Stars are not smooth. Their photosphere is covered by a granulation pattern associated with the heat transport by convection. The convection-related surface structures have different size, depth, and temporal variations with respect to the…
Astronomers usually need the highest angular resolution possible, but the blurring effect of diffraction imposes a fundamental limit on the image quality from any single telescope. Interferometry allows light collected at widely-separated…
This presentation summarizes how some of the most pressing questions in the field of star and planet formation can be addressed by high angular resolution optical/infrared capabilities, and how many of these capabilities will in fact be…
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…
Astrometry is a powerful technique in astrophysics to measure three-dimensional positions of stars and other astrophysical objects, including exoplanets and the gravitational influence they have on each other. Interferometric astrometry is…
Applying photometric catalogs to the study of the population of the Galaxy is obscured by the impossibility to map directly photometric colors into astrophysical parameters. Most of all-sky catalogs like ASCC or 2MASS are based upon…
Owing to the remarkable photometric precision of space observatories like Kepler, stellar and planetary systems beyond our own are now being characterized en masse for the first time. These characterizations are pivotal for endeavors such…
Asteroseismology is the only observational tool in astronomy that can probe the interiors of stars, and is a benchmark method for deriving fundamental properties of stars and exoplanets. Over the coming decade, space-based and ground-based…
Astrometry provides the foundation for astrophysics. Accurate positions are required for the association of sources detected at different times or wavelengths, and distances are essential to estimate the size, luminosity, mass, and ages of…
In the context of the space-based mission CoRoT, devoted to asteroseismology and search for planet transits, we analyse the accuracy of fundamental stellar parameters (mass, radius, luminosity) that can be obtained from asteroseismological…
Our understanding of the properties and demographics of exoplanets critically relies on our ability to determine fundamental properties of their host stars. The advent of Gaia and large spectroscopic surveys has now made it in principle…
The number of stellar angular diameter measurements has greatly increased over the past few years due to innovations and developments in the field of long baseline optical interferometry (LBOI). We use a collection of high-precision angular…
Accuracies reached in space astrometry now permit the accurate determination of astrometric radial velocities, without any use of spectroscopy. Knowing this true stellar motion, spectral shifts intrinsic to stellar atmospheres can be…
Astrometric measurements of stellar systems are becoming significantly more precise and common, with many ground and space-based instruments and missions approaching 1 microarcsecond precision. We examine the multi-wavelength astrometric…
The apparent size of stars is a crucial benchmark for fundamental stellar properties such as effective temperatures, radii and surface gravities. While interferometric measurements of stellar angular diameters are the most direct method to…