Related papers: SOFIA Astronomy and Technology in the 21st Century

The all sky surveys done by the Palomar Observatory Schmidt, the European Southern Observatory Schmidt, and the United Kingdom Schmidt, the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite and the 2 Micron All Sky Survey have proven to be extremely useful…

The question "How did we get here and what will the future bring?" captures the human imagination and the attention of the National Academy of Science's Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Commitee (AASC). Fulfillment of this "fundamental…

The European Gaia astrometry mission is due for launch in 2011. Gaia will rely on the proven principles of ESA's Hipparcos mission to create an all-sky survey of about one billion stars throughout our Galaxy and beyond, by observing all…

This paper describes outstanding issues in astrophysics and cosmology that can be solved by astronomical observations in a broad spectral range from far infrared to millimeter wavelengths. The discussed problems related to the formation of…

The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detectors have just completed their first science run, following many years of planning, research, and development. LIGO is a member of what will be a worldwide network of…

An international group of scientists has begun planning for the Planet Formation Imager (PFI, www.planetformationimager.org), a next-generation infrared interferometer array with the primary goal of imaging the active phases of planet…

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…

The Fermi Gamma ray Space Telescope, launched in 2008, has over 16 years of operations providing gamma ray (8 keV to 300 Gev) spectra science observations of cosmic phenomena. It continues to provide invaluable research for the astrophysics…

One of the major goals of observational cosmology is to acquire empirical data that has the diagnostic power to develop the theoretical modelling of the high-redshift universe, ultimately leading to an accurate understanding of the…

Robo-AO is the first autonomous laser adaptive optics system and science instrument operating on sky. With minimal human oversight, the system robotically executes large scale surveys, monitors long-term astrophysical dynamics and…

We present mid-infrared spectra from our continued monitoring of R Aquarii, the nearest symbiotic Mira, using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). New photometric and spectroscipic data were obtained with the Faint…

Prospects for future supernova surveys are discussed, focusing on the ESA Euclid mission and the European Extremely Large Telescope(E-ELT), both expected to be in operation around the turn of the decade. Euclid is a 1.2m space survey…

The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) is an infrared observatory for the next decade, currently in Phase A, with a 1.8m telescope actively cooled to 4.5K. On board, an infrared camera, PRIMAger, equipped with…

The Gaia astrometric mission - the Hipparcos successor - is described in some detail, with its three instruments: the two (spectro)photometers (BP and RP) covering the range 330-1050 nm, the white light (G-band) imager dedicated to…

We present basic observational strategies for ASTRO-F (also known as the Imaging Infra Red Surveyor (IRIS)) to be launched in 2004 by the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). We examine 2 survey scenarios, a deep…

The Gaia satellite will survey the entire celestial sphere down to 20th magnitude, obtaining astrometry, photometry, and low resolution spectrophotometry on one billion astronomical sources, plus radial velocities for over one hundred…

The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) Survey is a program aimed at obtaining a census of HI-bearing objects over a cosmologically significant volume of the local Universe. It will cover 7074 square degrees of the high latitude sky…

Astrophotonics lies at the interface of astronomy and photonics. This burgeoning field -- now formally recognized by the optics community -- has emerged over the past decade in response to the increasing demands of astronomical…

The Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA's Great Observatory for infrared astronomy, has made available new tools for the investigation of the infrared properties of planetary nebulae. The three instruments onboard, including the Infrared Array…

ASTRO-F is the first Japanese satellite mission dedicated for large area surveys in the infrared. The 69cm aperture telescope and scientific instruments are cooled to 6K by liquid Helium and mechanical coolers. During the expected mission…