Related papers: The Case for Probe-class NASA Astrophysics Mission…
UVEX is a proposed medium class Explorer mission designed to provide crucial missing capabilities that will address objectives central to a broad range of modern astrophysics. The UVEX design has two co-aligned wide-field imagers operating…
The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer is a uniquely capable mission, with three on-board instruments and rapid slewing capabilities. It serves as a fast-response satellite observatory for everything from gravitational-wave counterpart searches…
Radio pulsars have been responsible for many astonishing astrophysical and fundamental physics breakthroughs since their discovery 50 years ago. In this review I will discuss many of the highlights, most of which were only possible because…
Astrophysics demands higher precision in measurements across photometry, spectroscopy, and astrometry. Several science cases necessitate not only precision but also a high level of accuracy. We highlight the challenges involved,…
A summary is given of the current status and plans for gravitational-wave searches at all plausible wavelengths, from the size of the observable universe to a few kilometers. The anticipated scientific payoff from these searches is…
In its all-sky survey, the ESA global astrometry mission Gaia will perform high-precision astrometry and photometry for 1 billion stars down to $V = 20$ mag. The data collected in the Gaia catalogue, to be published by the end of the next…
The investigation of the emergence of life is a major endeavour of science. Astronomy is contributing to it in three fundamental manners: (1) by measuring the chemical enrichment of the Universe, (2) by investigating planet formation and…
LISA will open the mHz band of gravitational waves (GWs) to the astronomy community. The strong gravity which powers the variety of GW sources in this band is also crucial in a number of important astrophysical processes at the current…
Cosmic voids constitute promising cosmological laboratories. However, a full description of all the redshift-space effects that affect observational measurements is mandatory in order to obtain unbiased cosmological constraints. We make a…
Astronomy and related fields are at the forefront of science and technology; answering fundamental questions and driving innovation. Although blue-skies research like astronomy rarely contributes directly with tangible outcomes on a short…
Searches for millisecond pulsars (which we here loosely define as those with periods $<$ 20 ms) in the Galactic field have undergone a renaissance in the past five years. New or recently refurbished radio telescopes utilizing cooled…
Laboratory studies for planetary science and astrobiology aimat advancing our understanding of the Solar System through the promotion of theoretical and experimental research into the underlying processes that shape it. Laboratory studies…
The era of multi-messenger astrophysics has arrived, leading to key new discoveries and revealing a need for coordination, collaboration, and communication between world-wide communities using ground and space-based facilities. To fill…
Sky survey telescopes and powerful targeted telescopes play complementary roles in astronomy. In order to investigate the nature and characteristics of the motions of very faint objects, a flexibly-pointed instrument capable of high…
Einstein Probe is a small mission dedicated to time-domain high-energy astrophysics. Its primary goals are to discover high-energy transients and to monitor variable objects in the $0.5-4~$keV X-rays, at higher sensitivity by one order of…
SPICES (Spectro-Polarimetric Imaging and Characterization of Exoplanetary Systems) is a five-year M-class mission proposed to ESA Cosmic Vision. Its purpose is to image and characterize long-period extrasolar planets and circumstellar disks…
Over the past 16 years, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has provided an unparalleled means for exploring the universe with its half-arcsecond angular resolution. Chandra studies have deepened our understanding of galaxy clusters, active…
The proposed THESEUS mission will vastly expand the capabilities to monitor the high-energy sky, and will exploit large samples of gamma-ray bursts to probe the early Universe back to the first generation of stars, and to advance…
As the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) fulfills its primary mission it is executing an unprecedented all-sky survey with the potential to discover distant planets in our own solar system, as well as hundreds of…
EarthFinder is a Probe Mission concept selected for study by NASA for input to the 2020 astronomy decadal survey. This study is currently active and a final white paper report is due to NASA at the end of calendar 2018. We are tasked with…