Panel reports-new worlds, new horizons in astronomy and astrophysics
Abstract
Every 10 years the National Research Council releases a survey of astronomy and astrophysics outlining priorities for the coming decade. The most recent survey, titled New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, provides overall priorities and recommendations for the field as a whole based on a broad and comprehensive examination of scientific opportunities, infrastructure, and organization in a national and international context. Panel Reports--New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics is a collection of reports, each of which addresses a key sub-area of the field, prepared by specialists in that subarea, and each of which played an important role in setting overall priorities for the field. The collection, published in a single volume, includes the reports of the following panels: Cosmology and Fundamental Physics, Galaxies Across Cosmic Time, The Galactic Neighborhood, Stars and Stellar Evolution, Planetary Systems and Star Formation, Electromagnetic Observations from Space, Optical and Infrared Astronomy from the Ground, Particle Astrophysics and Gravitation, Radio, Millimeter, and Submillimeter Astronomy from the Ground. The Committee for a Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics synthesized these reports in the preparation of its prioritized recommendations for the field as a whole. These reports provide additional depth and detail in each of their respective areas. Taken together, they form an essential companion volume to New Worlds, New Horizons: A Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The book of panel reports will be useful to managers of programs of research in the field of astronomy and astrophysics, the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over the agencies supporting this research, the scientific community, and the public. © 2011 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
... Dark energy is hypothesized to explain the tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. As stated in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey (2010) [21], the only way moving forward in understanding this mysterious component of our universe is to use the universe at large to infer the properties of dark energy by measuring its effects on the expansion rate and the growth of structure, (addressing the Frontier of Knowledge, Expansion of the Universe). Therefore, precision measurements of the expansion of the universe with time and of the rate at which cosmic structure grows are required. ...
Voyager 3 is a concept mission that sends a space telescope to the interstellar medium in a reasonable amount of time. Voyager 3 would take a direct image of an exoplanet using the solar gravitational lensing at the distance of 550 astronomical unit (AU). The spacecraft would use its suite of scientific instruments to study the environment of the local solar system and interstellar medium and finalize its primary mission by imaging an exoplanet. Two potential architectures are proposed to meet this mission directive, using multiple gravitational assists and sizable electric propulsion burns to achieve the high escape speeds necessary to reach 550 AU. This paper expands on the science mission objectives, trajectory, and the preliminary design of the baseline spacecraft.
We present the design and performance of the GROWTH-India telescope, a 0.7 m robotic telescope dedicated to time-domain astronomy. The telescope is equipped with a 4k back-illuminated camera that gives a 0.°82 field of view and a sensitivity of m g′ ∼ 20.5 in 5 minute exposures. Custom software handles observatory operations: attaining high on-sky observing efficiencies (≳80%) and allowing rapid response to targets of opportunity. The data processing pipelines are capable of performing point-spread function photometry as well as image subtraction for transient searches. We also present an overview of the GROWTH-India telescope’s contributions to the studies of gamma-ray bursts, the electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources, supernovae, novae, and solar system objects.
Future, large-scale, exoplanet direct-imaging missions will be capable of discovering and characterizing Earth-like exoplanets and star systems like our solar system. However, a telescope capable of detecting Earth-like exoplanets would also be sensitive to a myriad of non-Earth-like exoplanets in the exoplanet population with the same instantaneous planet–star separation ( s ) and planet–star difference in magnitude (Δmag). Here, we consider the solar system as a previously unexplored exosystem, viewed by an external direct-imaging observer for the first time. We find that an external observer could see as many as six ( s , Δmag)-coincidence locations between the Earth and other solar system planets. We determine locations of ( s , Δmag)-coincidence of solar system planets using realistic planet phase functions and planet properties. By varying system inclinations, we found 36%–69% of inner planet orbits and 1%–4% of outer planet orbits share at least one ( s , Δmag)-coincidence with the Earth.
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