Faint objects in motion: the new frontier of high precision astrometry

Author(s)

Fabien Malbet, Céline Boehm, Alberto Krone-Martins, Antonio Amorim, Guillem Anglada-Escudé, Alexis Brandeker, Frédéric Courbin, Torsten Enßlin, Antonio Falcão, Katherine Freese, Berry Holl, Lucas Labadie, Alain Léger, Gary Mamon, Barbara Mcarthur, Alcione Mora, Mike Shao, Alessandro Sozzetti, Douglas Spolyar, Eva Villaver, Ummi Abbas, Conrado Albertus, João Alves, Rory Barnes, Aldo Stefano Bonomo, Hervé Bouy, Warren Brown, Vitor Cardoso, Marco Castellani, Laurent Chemin, Hamish Clark, Alexandre Correia, Mariateresa Crosta, Antoine Crouzier, Mario Damasso, Jeremy Darling, Melvyn Davies, Antonaldo Diaferio, Morgane Fortin, Malcolm Fridlund, Mario Gai, Paulo Garcia, Oleg Gnedin, Ariel Goobar, Paulo Gordo, Renaud Goullioud, David Hall, Nigel Hambly, Diana Harrison, David Hobbs, Andrew Holland, Erik Høg, Carme Jordi, Sergei Klioner, Ariane Lançon, Jacques Laskar, Mario Lattanzi, Christophe Le Poncin-Lafitte, Xavier Luri, Daniel Michalik, André Moitinho de Almeida, Ana Mourão, Leonidas Moustakas, Neil Murray, Matthew Muterspaugh, Micaela Oertel, Luisa Ostorero, Jordi Portell, Jean-Pierre Prost, Andreas Quirrenbach, Jean Schneider, Pat Scott, Arnaud Siebert, Antonio Da Silva, Manuel Silva, Philippe Thébault, John Tomsick, Wesley Traub, Miguel de Val-Borro, Monica Valluri, Nicholas Walton, Laura Watkins, Glenn White, Lukasz Wyrzykowski, Rosemary Wyse, Yoshiyuki Yamada

Abstract

Sky survey telescopes and powerful targeted telescopes play

complementary roles in astronomy. In order to investigate the nature and

characteristics of the motions of very faint objects, a flexibly-pointed

instrument capable of high astrometric accuracy is an ideal complement

to current astrometric surveys and a unique tool for precision

astrophysics. Such a space-based mission will push the frontier of

precision astrometry from evidence of Earth-mass habitable worlds around

the nearest stars, to distant Milky Way objects, and out to the Local

Group of galaxies. As we enter the era of the James Webb Space Telescope

and the new ground-based, adaptive-optics-enabled giant telescopes, by

obtaining these high precision measurements on key objects that Gaia

could not reach, a mission that focuses on high precision astrometry

science can consolidate our theoretical understanding of the local

Universe, enable extrapolation of physical processes to remote

redshifts, and derive a much more consistent picture of cosmological

evolution and the likely fate of our cosmos. Already several missions

have been proposed to address the science case of faint objects in

motion using high precision astrometry missions: NEAT proposed for the

ESA M3 opportunity, micro-NEAT for the S1 opportunity, and Theia for the

M4 and M5 opportunities. Additional new mission configurations adapted

with technological innovations could be envisioned to pursue accurate

measurements of these extremely small motions. The goal of this White

Paper is to address the fundamental science questions that are at stake

when we focus on the motions of faint sky objects and to briefly review

instrumentation and mission profiles.

Organisation(s)

Department of Astrophysics

Publication date

11-2021

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103003 Astronomy, 103004 Astrophysics

Keywords

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/a7fb7a89-94f6-4dd4-879d-26670ff61a51