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In the era of Extremely Large Telescopes, the current generation of 8-10m facilities are likely to remain competitive at far-blue visible wavelengths for the foreseeable future. High-efficiency (>20%) observations of the ground UV (300-400…
With an initial requirement to make observations a minimum of 5-10 years, Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has continued to operate well for 30 years. It has relied upon five servicing missions to repair and replace essential components. Since…
The ultraviolet (UV) window has been largely unexplored through balloons for astronomy. We discuss here the development of a compact near-UV spectrograph with fiber optics input for balloon ights. It is a modified Czerny-Turner system built…
A large wide-field telescope and camera with optical throughput over 200 m^2 deg^2 -- a factor of 50 beyond what we currently have -- would enable the detection of faint moving or bursting optical objects: from Earth threatening asteroids…
In support of the Astrobiology Science Strategy, this whitepaper outlines some key technology challenges pertaining to the remote search for life in exoplanetary systems. Finding evidence for life on rocky planets outside of our solar…
The Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and ultraviolet Research (CASTOR) is a proposed Canadian-led 1m-class space telescope that will carry out ultraviolet and blue-optical wide-field imaging, spectroscopy, and photometry.…
The operation of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) marks a transformative moment in humanity's capacity to detect and characterize interstellar objects (ISOs). With projections indicating an increase…
For the first time in human history, technologies have matured sufficiently to enable a mission capable of discovering and characterizing habitable planets like Earth orbiting sunlike stars other than the Sun. At the same time, such a…
The millimeter/sub-millimeter (mm/sub-mm) sky remains a rich but under-explored frontier for transient and variable phenomena. A wide-field, high-sensitivity instrument with a large aperture and degree-scale field of view would open this…
The China Space Station Telescope (CSST) is the next-generation Stage~IV survey telescope. It can simultaneously perform multi-band imaging and slitless spectroscopic wide- and deep-field surveys in ten years and an ultra-deep field (UDF)…
The NEAT (Nearby Earth Astrometric Telescope) mission is a proposition submitted to ESA for its 2010 call for M-size mission. The main scientific goal is to detect and characterize planetary systems in an exhaustive way down to 1 Earth mass…
Long-term high-cadence measurements of stellar spectral variability are fundamental to better understand stellar atmospheric properties and stellar magnetism. These, in turn, are fundamental for the detectability of exoplanets as well as…
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is conceived as an 8.4-m telescope with CCD or CMOS focal plane covering most of a field 0.6 m in diameter, the latter exceeding the size of the largest photographic plates ever used in astronomy.…
Solar Orbiter is the first space mission observing the solar plasma both in situ and remotely, from a close distance, in and out of the ecliptic. The ultimate goal is to understand how the Sun produces and controls the heliosphere, filling…
The Astro2020 Decadal Survey recognizes time-domain astronomy as a key science area over the next decade and beyond. With over 30 years of HST data and the potential for 20 years of JWST operations, these flagship observatories offer an…
The singular way of scheduling at major observatories has favored certain types of astronomy. This has led to the discrimination of certain types of observations which could not be accommodated. It is the goal of future operations to open…
We summarize some of the compelling new scientific opportunities for understanding stars and stellar systems that can be enabled by sub-milliarcsec (sub-mas) angular resolution, UV-Optical spectral imaging observations, which can reveal the…
The ESA Euclid mission is a space telescope that will survey ~15,000 square degrees of the sky, primarily to study the distant universe (constraining cosmological parameters through the lensing of galaxies). It is also expected to observe…
The accurate modelling of the Point Spread Function (PSF) is of paramount importance in astronomical observations, as it allows for the correction of distortions and blurring caused by the telescope and atmosphere. PSF modelling is crucial…
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) can advance scientific frontiers beyond its groundbreaking 10-year survey. Here we explore opportunities for extended operations with proposal-based observing strategies, new filters, or…