Related papers: Transformative Planetary Science with the US ELT P…
The Hubble Space Telescope has produced astonishing science over the past thirty years. Hubble's productivity can continue to soar for years to come provided some worn out components get upgraded. While powerful new ground-based and space…
The Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope (GEST) will observe a 2 square degree field in the Galactic bulge to search for extra-solar planets using a gravitational lensing technique. This gravitational lensing technique is the only method…
Adaptive optics systems are essential on all large telescopes where image quality is important. These are complex systems with many design parameters requiring optimisation before good performance can be achieved. The simulation of adaptive…
This paper presents an overview of the high-redshift extragalactic science case for the Single Aperture Large Telescope for Universe Studies (SALTUS) far-infrared NASA probe-class mission concept. Enabled by its 14m primary reflector,…
A 30 m class optical/near-IR telescope in the Northern Hemisphere, equipped for diffraction-limited imaging and high-resolution, multi-object spectroscopy of faint stars, would enable a transformational investigation of the formation and…
The Einstein Telescope (ET) is a proposed next-generation, underground gravitational-wave (GW) detector to be based in Europe. It will provide about an order of magnitude sensitivity increase with respect to currently operating detectors,…
The Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS) is a space mission concept aimed at exploiting Gamma-Ray Bursts for investigating the early Universe and at providing a substantial advancement of multi-messenger and…
This White Paper presents the scientific motivations for a multi-object spectrograph (MOS) on the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The MOS case draws on all fields of contemporary astronomy, from extra-solar planets, to the study…
The Tarantula Survey is an ambitious ESO Large Programme that has obtained multi-epoch spectroscopy of over 1,000 massive stars in the 30 Doradus region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Here we introduce the scientific motivations of the…
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will search for planets transiting bright and nearby stars. TESS has been selected by NASA for launch in 2017 as an Astrophysics Explorer mission. The spacecraft will be placed into a highly…
The 39-meter European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) is expected to have very low throughput in the blue part of the visible spectrum. Because of that, a blue-optimised spectrograph at the 8-meter Very Large Telescope could potentially…
In this paper we investigate the opportunities provided by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for significant scientific advances in the study of solar system bodies and rings using stellar occultations. The strengths and weaknesses of…
The ESPRESSO spectrograph at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has, since it began science operations in October 2018, revolutionised exoplanet science. The combination of the large VLT mirrors and the high resolution and stability of the…
The next generation of multi-object spectrographs (MOS) will deliver comprehensive surveys of the Galaxy, Magellanic Clouds and nearby dwarfs. These will provide us with the vast samples, spanning the full extent of the Hertzsprung-Russell…
The first generation of E-ELT instruments will include an optical-infrared High Resolution Spectrograph, conventionally indicated as EELT-HIRES, which will be capable of providing unique breakthroughs in the fields of exoplanets, star and…
(Abridged) The discovery of extrasolar planetary systems revealed an unexpected diversity of planetary systems that has revolutionized planet formation theory. A strong program of theoretical research is essential to maximize both 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…
Giant planets within the habitable zones of the closest several stars can currently be imaged with ground-based telescopes. Within the next decade, the Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) will begin to image the habitable zones of a greater…
The Large Binocular Telescope, with its expansive collecting area, angular resolving power, and advanced optical design, provides a robust platform for development and operation of advanced instrumentation for astronomical research. The LBT…
While space-based telescopes have had a part to play ultimately I feel that it is telescopes like myself that have contributed the most to pushing the boundaries of our knowledge. With current advances in optical engineering we have the…