Related papers: UN/ESA Workshops on Basic Space Science: An Update…
It is widely expected that the coming decade will witness the first direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs). The ground-based LIGO and Virgo GW observatories are being upgraded to advanced sensitivity, and are expected to observe a…
Radio Astronomy is undergoing a renaissance, as the next-generation of instruments provides a massive leap forward in collecting area and therefore raw sensitivity. However, to achieve this theoretical level of sensitivity in the science…
Observations that require large physical instrument dimensions and/or a considerable amount of cryogens, as it is for example the case for high spatial resolution far infrared astronomy, currently still face technological limits for their…
The field of astronomy has arrived at a turning point in terms of size and complexity of both datasets and scientific collaboration. Commensurately, algorithms and statistical models have begun to adapt --- e.g., via the onset of artificial…
Most major discoveries in astronomy have come from unplanned discoveries made by surveying the Universe in a new way, rather than by testing a hypothesis or conducting an investigation with planned outcomes. Next generation radio continuum…
From al-Sufi's tenth-century observation of the Andromeda Galaxy as a "little cloud" to contemporary space missions, Islamic astronomy represents a millennium-spanning tradition of innovation and knowledge. This study traces its trajectory…
We outline the science case for a 30-40 m optical/infrared telescope in the Northern Hemisphere, optimised for transformative time-domain astronomy in the 2040s. Upcoming multi-wavelength and multi-messenger facilities will reveal fast,…
The large instantaneous sensitivity, a wide frequency coverage and flexible observation modes with large number of beams in the sky are the main features of the SKA observatory's two telescopes, the SKA-Low and the SKA-Mid, which are…
The Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (Athena) is the X-ray observatory large mission selected by the European Space Agency (ESA), within its Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme, to address the "Hot and Energetic Universe"…
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation of ground-based gamma-ray observatory. The observatory will consist of two arrays, one located in the southern hemisphere (Paranal,Chile) and the other in the northern hemisphere…
The LISA mission is an international collaboration between ESA, its member states, and NASA, for the detection of gravitational waves from space. It was adopted in January 2024 and is scheduled for launch in the mid-2030's. It will be a…
Laboratory astrophysics and complementary theoretical calculations are the foundations of astronomy and astrophysics and will remain so into the foreseeable future. The impact of laboratory astrophysics ranges from the scientific conception…
The Environment of Lyman Break Analogues (ELBA) survey is an imaging survey of 33 $deg^{2}$ of the southern sky. The survey was observed in {\it u}, {\it g}, {\it r}, and {\it i} bands with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Blanco…
The Simons Observatory (SO) is a cosmic microwave background (CMB) observatory consisting of three small aperture telescopes and one large aperture telescope. SO is located in the Atacama Desert in Chile at an elevation of 5180m.…
The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is an open access telescope dedicated to studying the low frequency (80$-$300 MHz) southern sky. Since beginning operations in mid 2013, the MWA has opened a new observational window in the southern…
In support of the National Acadamies' Exoplanet Science Strategy, this whitepaper outlines key technology challenges for studying the diversity of worlds in the Galaxy and in searching for habitable planets. Observations of habitable…
This document introduces the exciting and fundamentally new science and astronomy that the European New Gravitational Wave Observatory (NGO) mission (derived from the previous LISA proposal) will deliver. The mission (which we will refer to…
Over the past century, major advances in astronomy and astrophysics have been largely driven by improvements in instrumentation and data collection. With the amassing of high quality data from new telescopes, and especially with the advent…
This paper summarizes contributions and suggestions as presented at the Chandra Workshop Star Formation in the Era of Three Great Observatories conducted in July 2005. One of the declared goals of the workshop was to raise recognition…
Located on the campus of the Thacher School in Southern California, the Thacher Observatory has a legacy of astronomy research and education that dates back to the late 1950's. In 2016, the observatory was fully renovated with upgrades…