TY - JOUR

T1 - Faint objects in motion

T2 - the new frontier of high precision astrometry

AU - Malbet, Fabien

AU - Boehm, Celine

AU - Krone-Martins, Alberto

AU - Amorim, Antonio

AU - Anglada-Escude, Guillem

AU - Brandeker, Alexis

AU - Courbin, Frederic

AU - Ensslin, Torsten

AU - Falcao, Antonio

AU - Freese, Katherine

AU - Holl, Berry

AU - Labadie, Lucas

AU - Leger, Alain

AU - Mamon, Gary A.

AU - McArthur, Barbara

AU - Mora, Alcione

AU - Shao, Mike

AU - Sozzetti, Alessandro

AU - Spolyar, Douglas

AU - Villaver, Eva

AU - Abbas, Ummi

AU - Albertus, Conrado

AU - Alves, Joao

AU - Barnes, Rory

AU - Bonomo, Aldo Stefano

AU - Bouy, Herve

AU - Brown, Warren R.

AU - Cardoso, Vitor

AU - Castellani, Marco

AU - Chemin, Laurent

AU - Clark, Hamish

AU - Correia, Alexandre C. M.

AU - Crosta, Mariateresa

AU - Crouzier, Antoine

AU - Damasso, Mario

AU - Darling, Jeremy

AU - Davies, Melvyn B.

AU - Diaferio, Antonaldo

AU - Fortin, Morgane

AU - Fridlund, Malcolm

AU - Gai, Mario

AU - Garcia, Paulo

AU - Gnedin, Oleg

AU - Goobar, Ariel

AU - Gordo, Paulo

AU - Goullioud, Renaud

AU - Hall, David

AU - Hambly, Nigel

AU - Harrison, Diana

AU - Hobbs, David

AU - Holland, Andrew

AU - Hog, Erik

AU - Jordi, Carme

AU - Klioner, Sergei

AU - Lancon, Ariane

AU - Laskar, Jacques

AU - Lattanzi, Mario

AU - Le Poncin-Lafitte, Christophe

AU - Luri, Xavier

AU - Michalik, Daniel

AU - de Almeida, Andre Moitinho

AU - Mourao, Ana

AU - Moustakas, Leonidas

AU - Murray, Neil J.

AU - Muterspaugh, Matthew

AU - Oertel, Micaela

AU - Ostorero, Luisa

AU - Portell, Jordi

AU - Prost, Jean-Pierre

AU - Quirrenbach, Andreas

AU - Schneider, Jean

AU - Scott, Pat

AU - Siebert, Arnaud

AU - da Silva, Antonio

AU - Silva, Manuel

AU - Thebault, Philippe

AU - Tomsick, John

AU - Traub, Wesley

AU - de Val-Borro, Miguel

AU - Valluri, Monica

AU - Walton, Nicholas A.

AU - Watkins, Laura L.

AU - White, Glenn

AU - Wyrzykowski, Lukasz

AU - Wyse, Rosemary

AU - Yamada, Yoshiyuki

PY - 2021/9/4

Y1 - 2021/9/4

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Astrometry

KW - Cosmology

KW - Local universe

KW - Exoplanets

KW - Space mission

KW - EQUATION-OF-STATE

KW - BLACK-HOLE

KW - DARK-MATTER

KW - HYPERVELOCITY STARS

KW - GALACTIC-HALO

KW - NEUTRON-STARS

KW - MASS

KW - PLANET

KW - GALAXIES

KW - SHAPE

U2 - 10.1007/s10686-021-09781-1

DO - 10.1007/s10686-021-09781-1

M3 - Journal article

VL - 51

SP - 845

EP - 886

JO - Space Science Instrumentation

JF - Space Science Instrumentation

SN - 0004-640X

IS - 3

ER -