Related papers: The Big Occulting Steerable Satellite (BOSS)
We investigate the limits of ground-based astrometry with adaptive optics using the core of the Galactic globular cluster M5. Adaptive optics systems provide near diffraction-limit imaging with the world's largest telescopes. The…
Capture of interstellar objects (ISOs) into the Solar system is dominated by ISOs with asymptotic incoming speeds $v_\infty<4\,$km\,s$^{-1}$. The capture rate is proportional to the ISO phase-space density in the Solar vicinity and does not…
We discuss a Galaxy-wide coordinated signaling scheme with which a SETI observer needs to examine a tiny fraction of the sky. The target sky direction is determined as a function of time, based on high-precision measurements of a progenitor…
For the first time, the lunar occultation technique has been employed on a very large telescope in the near-IR with the aim of achieving systematically milliarcsecond resolution on stellar sources. We have demonstrated the burst mode of the…
Four ongoing microlensing experiments have produced important new results but also big puzzles, the major one being that the expected classes of lenses cannot account for the observed distribution of time scales. I discuss future…
Imagine we could do asteroseismology of large samples of OB-type stars by using just one spectrum per target. That would be great! But this is probably a crazy and stupid idea. Or maybe not. Maybe we have the possibility to open a new…
There is ever growing demand for satellite constellations that perform global positioning, remote sensing, earth-imaging and relay communication. In these highly prized orbits, there are many obsolete and abandoned satellites and components…
The Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature in the power spectrum of galaxies provides a standard ruler to probe the accelerated expansion of the Universe. The current surveys covering a comoving volume sufficient to unveil the BAO scale…
We investigate the effects of potential sources of systematic error on the angular and photometric redshift, z_phot, distributions of a sample of redshift 0.4 < z < 0.7 massive galaxies whose selection matches that of the Baryon Oscillation…
The emergence of a new discipline called space weather, which aims at understanding and predicting the impact of solar activity on the terrestrial environment and on technological systems, has led to a growing need for analysing solar…
The number of planetary satellites around solid objects in the inner Solar System is small either because they are difficult or unlikely to form, or that they do not survive for astronomical timescales. Here we conduct a pilot study on the…
Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) are thought to be the remnant of the early solar system, and their size distribution provides an opportunity to explore the formation and evolution of the outer solar system. In particular, the size distribution…
The Single Aperture Large Telescope for Universe Studies (SALTUS) is a deployable space telescope designed to provide the astrophysics community with an extremely large far-infrared (far-IR) space observatory to explore our cosmic origins.…
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will photometrically monitor approximately 1 billion stars for ten years. The resulting light curves can be used to detect transiting exoplanets. In particular, as demonstrated by Lund et al.…
Thanks to the INTEGRAL satellite the way of looking at the hard X-ray sky above 20 keV has changed substantially. Through the unique imaging and spectroscopy capabilities of the IBIS instrument that has formed the basis of the INTEGRAL…
The SALTUS Probe mission will provide a powerful far-infrared (far-IR) pointed space observatory to explore our cosmic origins and the possibility of life elsewhere. The observatory employs an innovative deployable 14-m aperture, with a…
The Planet Hunting and Asteroseismology Explorer Spectrophotometer, PHASES, is a concept for a space-borne instrument to obtain flux calibrated spectra and measure micro-magnitude photometric variations of nearby stars. The science drivers…
The Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) will conduct novel cosmological observations using the BOSS spectrograph at Apache Point Observatory. Observations will be simultaneous with the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey…
We discuss the feasibility of and present initial designs and approximate cost estimates for a large ($N\sim2000$) network of small photometric telescopes that is purpose-built to monitor $V \lesssim 15$ Gaia Mission program stars for…
Galaxy Surveys are enjoying a renaissance thanks to the advent of multi-object spectrographs on ground-based telescopes. The last 15 years have seen the fruits of this experimental advance, including the 2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift…