Related papers: Transformative Planetary Science with the US ELT P…
The ultra-high contrast capability required to form images of other solar systems is arguably the highest-profile challenge in astronomy today. The current high-contrast imaging efforts all require background subtraction to separate the…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will devote significant observing time to the study of exoplanets. It will not be serviceable as was the Hubble Space Telescope, and therefore the spacecraft/instruments will have a relatively limited…
The Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph (METIS) will provide the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) with a unique window to the thermal- and mid-infrared (3 - 13 microns). Its single-conjugate adaptive optics (SCAO) system will enable…
The SKA will be transformational for many areas of science, but in particular for the study of neutron stars and their usage as tools for fundamental physics in the form of radio pulsars. Since the last science case for the SKA, numerous…
As the SALT High Resolution Spectrograph completion is nearing we plan to extend the Pennsylvania-Torun Planets Search (PTPS) with HET to the southern hemisphere. Due to overlap of the skies available for both HET and SALT in the…
Understanding the formation, evolution, and chemical diversity of exoplanets are now central areas of astrophysics research. White dwarfs provide a uniquely sensitive laboratory for studying the end stages of planetary-system evolution and…
In this white paper, we recommend the European Space Agency plays a proactive role in developing a global collaborative effort to construct a large high-contrast imaging space telescope, e.g. as currently under study by NASA. Such a mission…
Due to their extremely small luminosity compared to the stars they orbit, planets outside our own Solar System are extraordinarily difficult to detect directly in optical light. Careful photometric monitoring of distant stars, however, can…
There are 8000 galaxies, including 1600 at z larger than 1.6, which could be simultaneously observed in an E-ELT field of view of 40 sq. arcmin. A considerable fraction of astrophysical discoveries require large statistical samples, which…
Microlensing offers a unique opportunity to probe exoplanets that are temperate and beyond the snow line, as small as Jovian satellites, at extragalactic distance, and even free floating exoplanets, regimes where the sensitivity of other…
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…
Building on the comprehensive White Paper on the scientific case for multi-object spectroscopy on the European ELT, we present the top-level instrument requirements that are being used in the Phase A design study of the MOSAIC concept. The…
We present an analysis of surveying the inner Solar System for objects that may pose some threat to the Earth. Most of the analysis is based on understanding the capability provided by Sentinel, a concept for an infrared space-based…
We present a study of the effect of crowding on stellar photometry. We develop an analytical model through which we are able to predict the error in magnitude and color for a given star for any combination of telescope resolution, stellar…
Several recent works have proposed "stellar relay" transmission systems in which a spacecraft at the focus of a star's gravitational lens achieves dramatic boosts in the gain of an outgoing or incoming interstellar transmission. We examine…
The Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP) is chartered by the NASA Astrophysics Division to carry out science, research, and technology tasks that advance NASA's science goals for exoplanets. The ExEP Science Gap List is a compilation of…
While astronomical twilight closes the observing window for optical astronomers, the infrared sky remains dark even through sunrise, allowing IR astronomers to observe through twilight. The Slicer Combined with an Array of Lenslets for…
We describe updated scientific goals for the wide-field, millimeter-wave survey that will be produced by the Simons Observatory (SO). Significant upgrades to the 6-meter SO Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) are expected to be complete by 2028,…
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is designed to provide an unprecedented optical imaging dataset that will support investigations of our Solar System, Galaxy and Universe, across half the sky and over ten years of repeated observation.…
ATLAS (Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy) Probe is a concept for a NASA probe-class space mission. It is the follow-up space mission to WFIRST, boosting its scientific return by obtaining deep IR slit spectroscopy for 70%…