Related papers: The Stellar Imager (SI) Vision Mission

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…

A wide-field zenith-looking telescope operating in a mode similar to Time-Delay-Integration (TDI) or drift scan imaging can perform an infrared sky survey without active pointing control but it requires a high-speed, low-noise infrared…

Long range observations in the field of astronomy have opened up our understanding of the Solar System, the Galaxy and the wider Universe. In this paper we discuss the idea of direct in-situ reconnaissance of nearby stellar systems, using…

The Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER) is a rocket-borne absolute photometry imaging and spectroscopy experiment optimized to detect signatures of first-light galaxies present during reionization in the unresolved IR background.…

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is optimized for observations in the near and mid infrared and will provide essential observations for targets that cannot be conducted from the ground or other missions during its lifetime. The state…

The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) is the instrument of choice when it comes to observing astrometric microlensing events where nearby, usually high-proper-motion stars (``lenses''), pass in front of more distant stars (``sources'').…

We have built and tested a compact, low-cost, but very-high-performance astronomical polarimeter based on a continuously rotating half-wave plate and a high-speed imaging detector. The polarimeter is suitable for small telescopes up to ~1 m…

The concept of a recently proposed small-scale interferometric optical imaging device, an instrument known as the Segmented Planar Imaging Detector for Electro-optical Reconnaissance (SPIDER), is of great interest for its possible…

The idea behind FIRST (Fibered Imager foR a Single Telescope) is to use single-mode fibers to combine multiple apertures in a pupil plane as such as to synthesize a bigger aperture. The advantages with respect to a pure imager are i)…

Most observations of the solar corona beyond 2 Rs consist of broadband visible light imagery from coronagraphs. The associated diagnostics mainly consist of kinematics and derivations of the electron number density. While the measurement of…

Interest in the study of magnetic fields and the properties of interstellar dust, explored through increasingly capable far-IR/submillimeter polarimetry, along with maturing detector technology, have set the stage for a transformative leap…

A mid-infrared nulling-space interferometer is a promising way to characterize thermal light from habitable planet candidates around Sun-like stars. However, one of the main challenges for achieving this ambitious goal is a high-precision…

Resolving fine details of astronomical objects provides critical insights into their underlying physical processes. This drives in part the desire to construct ever-larger telescopes and interferometer arrays and to observe at shorter…

Cloud imaging using ground-based whole sky imagers is essential for a fine-grained understanding of the effects of cloud formations, which can be useful in many applications. Some such imagers are available commercially, but their cost is…

The Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) will look at solar flares across the hard X-ray window provided by the Solar Orbiter cluster. Similarly to the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), STIX is a…

Mini-EUSO is the first mission of the JEM-EUSO program located on the International Space Station. One of the main goals of the mission is to provide valuable scientific data in view of future large missions devoted to study Ultra-High…

We present a detailed spectroscopic study of a sample of bright, mostly cool, stars observed with the Short-Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), which enables the accurate determination of the stellar…

Metis is the first solar coronagraph designed for a space mission capable of performing simultaneous imaging of the off-limb solar corona in both visible and UV light. The observations obtained with Metis aboard the Solar Orbiter ESA-NASA…

The Star Watch extreme-precision astrometry mission (0.1 - 1.0 uas) builds on technology developed, and validated, during the SIM (Space Interferometry Mission) project. The sole science instrument is an optical interferometer with 50-cm…

Infrared space interferometers can surpass the spatial resolution limitations of single-dish space telescopes. However, stellar interferometers from space have not been realized because of technical difficulties. Two beams coming from…