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

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 A. 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 R. Brown; Vitor Cardoso; Marco Castellani; Laurent Chemin; Hamish Clark; Alexandre C.M. Correia; Mariateresa Crosta; Antoine Crouzier; Mario Damasso; Jeremy Darling; Melvyn B. 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 J. 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 A. Walton; Glenn White; Laura L. Watkins; Lukasz Wyrzykowski; Rosemary Wyse; Yoshiyuki Yamada

doi:10.1007/s10686-021-09781-1

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

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 A. Mamon, Barbara McArthur, Alcione Mora, Mike Shao, Alessandro Sozzetti, Douglas Spolyar, Eva VillaverUmmi Abbas, Conrado Albertus, João Alves, Rory Barnes, Aldo Stefano Bonomo, Hervé Bouy, Warren R. Brown, Vitor Cardoso, Marco Castellani, Laurent Chemin, Hamish Clark, Alexandre C.M. Correia, Mariateresa Crosta, Antoine Crouzier, Mario Damasso, Jeremy Darling, Melvyn B. 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 J. 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 A. Walton, Glenn White, Laura L. Watkins, Lukasz Wyrzykowski, Rosemary Wyse, Yoshiyuki Yamada

UNINOVA-Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Novas Tecnologias

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	845-886
Number of pages	42
Journal	Experimental Astronomy
Volume	51
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-021-09781-1
Publication status	Published - Jun 2021

Keywords

Astrometry
Cosmology
Exoplanets
Local universe
Space mission

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10.1007/s10686-021-09781-1

Cite this

Malbet, F., Boehm, C., Krone-Martins, A., Amorim, A., Anglada-Escudé, G., Brandeker, A., Courbin, F., Enßlin, T., Falcão, A., Freese, K., Holl, B., Labadie, L., Léger, A., Mamon, G. A., McArthur, B., Mora, A., Shao, M., Sozzetti, A., Spolyar, D., ... Yamada, Y. (2021). Faint objects in motion: the new frontier of high precision astrometry. Experimental Astronomy, 51(3), 845-886. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-021-09781-1

Malbet, Fabien ; Boehm, Céline ; Krone-Martins, Alberto ; Amorim, Antonio ; Anglada-Escudé, Guillem ; Brandeker, Alexis ; Courbin, Frédéric ; Enßlin, Torsten ; Falcão, Antonio ; Freese, Katherine ; Holl, Berry ; Labadie, Lucas ; Léger, Alain ; Mamon, Gary A. ; McArthur, Barbara ; Mora, Alcione ; Shao, Mike ; Sozzetti, Alessandro ; Spolyar, Douglas ; Villaver, Eva ; Abbas, Ummi ; Albertus, Conrado ; Alves, João ; Barnes, Rory ; Bonomo, Aldo Stefano ; Bouy, Hervé ; Brown, Warren R. ; Cardoso, Vitor ; Castellani, Marco ; Chemin, Laurent ; Clark, Hamish ; Correia, Alexandre C.M. ; Crosta, Mariateresa ; Crouzier, Antoine ; Damasso, Mario ; Darling, Jeremy ; Davies, Melvyn B. ; Diaferio, Antonaldo ; Fortin, Morgane ; Fridlund, Malcolm ; Gai, Mario ; Garcia, Paulo ; Gnedin, Oleg ; Goobar, Ariel ; Gordo, Paulo ; Goullioud, Renaud ; Hall, David ; Hambly, Nigel ; Harrison, Diana ; Hobbs, David ; Holland, Andrew ; Høg, Erik ; Jordi, Carme ; Klioner, Sergei ; Lançon, Ariane ; Laskar, Jacques ; Lattanzi, Mario ; Le Poncin-Lafitte, Christophe ; Luri, Xavier ; Michalik, Daniel ; de Almeida, André Moitinho ; Mourão, Ana ; Moustakas, Leonidas ; Murray, Neil J. ; Muterspaugh, Matthew ; Oertel, Micaela ; Ostorero, Luisa ; Portell, Jordi ; Prost, Jean Pierre ; Quirrenbach, Andreas ; Schneider, Jean ; Scott, Pat ; Siebert, Arnaud ; Silva, Antonio da ; Silva, Manuel ; Thébault, Philippe ; Tomsick, John ; Traub, Wesley ; de Val-Borro, Miguel ; Valluri, Monica ; Walton, Nicholas A. ; White, Glenn ; Watkins, Laura L. ; Wyrzykowski, Lukasz ; Wyse, Rosemary ; Yamada, Yoshiyuki. / Faint objects in motion : the new frontier of high precision astrometry. In: Experimental Astronomy. 2021 ; Vol. 51, No. 3. pp. 845-886.

@article{3bf51cbea456402e9515d49991a50266,

title = "Faint objects in motion: the new frontier of high precision astrometry",

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.",

keywords = "Astrometry, Cosmology, Exoplanets, Local universe, Space mission",

author = "Fabien Malbet and C{\'e}line Boehm and Alberto Krone-Martins and Antonio Amorim and Guillem Anglada-Escud{\'e} and Alexis Brandeker and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric Courbin and Torsten En{\ss}lin and Antonio Falc{\~a}o and Katherine Freese and Berry Holl and Lucas Labadie and Alain L{\'e}ger and Mamon, {Gary A.} and Barbara McArthur and Alcione Mora and Mike Shao and Alessandro Sozzetti and Douglas Spolyar and Eva Villaver and Ummi Abbas and Conrado Albertus and Jo{\~a}o Alves and Rory Barnes and Bonomo, {Aldo Stefano} and Herv{\'e} Bouy and Brown, {Warren R.} and Vitor Cardoso and Marco Castellani and Laurent Chemin and Hamish Clark and Correia, {Alexandre C.M.} and Mariateresa Crosta and Antoine Crouzier and Mario Damasso and Jeremy Darling and Davies, {Melvyn B.} and Antonaldo Diaferio and Morgane Fortin and Malcolm Fridlund and Mario Gai and Paulo Garcia and Oleg Gnedin and Ariel Goobar and Paulo Gordo and Renaud Goullioud and David Hall and Nigel Hambly and Diana Harrison and David Hobbs and Andrew Holland and Erik H{\o}g and Carme Jordi and Sergei Klioner and Ariane Lan{\c c}on and Jacques Laskar and Mario Lattanzi and {Le Poncin-Lafitte}, Christophe and Xavier Luri and Daniel Michalik and {de Almeida}, {Andr{\'e} Moitinho} and Ana Mour{\~a}o and Leonidas Moustakas and Murray, {Neil J.} and Matthew Muterspaugh and Micaela Oertel and Luisa Ostorero and Jordi Portell and Prost, {Jean Pierre} and Andreas Quirrenbach and Jean Schneider and Pat Scott and Arnaud Siebert and Silva, {Antonio da} and Manuel Silva and Philippe Th{\'e}bault and John Tomsick and Wesley Traub and {de Val-Borro}, Miguel and Monica Valluri and Walton, {Nicholas A.} and Glenn White and Watkins, {Laura L.} and Lukasz Wyrzykowski and Rosemary Wyse and Yoshiyuki Yamada",

note = "Funding Information: Open access funding provided by Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. Funding Information: Concerning the funding of our work, we would like to acknowledge the support of many agencies or programs. R.B. acknowledges support from NASA{\textquoteright}s Virtual Planetary Laboratory lead team under cooperative agreements NNA13AA93A. A.C.M.C. acknowledges support from CFisUC strategic project (UID/FIS/04564/2019). F.C. acknowledges support by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (COSMICLENS: grant agreement No. 787886). M.F. received support from Polish National Science Centre (NCN) under Grant No. 2017/26/D/ST9/00591. M.F. gratefully acknowledge the support of the Swedish National Space Agency (DNR 65/19, 174/18). D.H. thanks the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA/Rymdstyrelsen) for their support. A.M. thanks the Portugese Funda{\c c}{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the Strategic Programme UID/FIS/00099/2019 for CENTRA. P.S. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council under grant FT190100814. L.W. acknowledges support from the Polish NCN grants: Harmonia No. 2018/06M/ST9/00311 and Daina No. 2017/27/L/ST9/03221. The OATo team acknowledges partial funding by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) under contracts 2014-025-R.1.2015 and 2018-24-HH.0, and by a grant from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (ASTRA). A.C. and F.M. acknowledge support by the LabEx FOCUS ANR-11-LABX-0013. The work of C.J., X.L. and J.P. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University (MICIU/FEDER, UE) through grants RTI2018-095076-B-C21, ESP2016-80079-C2-1-R, and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences University of Barcelona (ICCUB, Unidad de Excelencia {\textquoteright}Mar{\'i}a de Maeztu{\textquoteright}) through grants MDM-2014-0369 and CEX2019-000918-M. A.K.-M., A.A., V.C., P.G., P.G., A.M.A., A.M., M.S. were supported by Funda{\c c}{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e a Tecnologia, with grants reference UIDB/00099/ 2020 and SFRH/BSAB/142940/2018 (P.G. only). A.D. and L.O. also acknowledge partial support from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the Departments of Excellence grant L.232/2016, and from the INFN grant InDark. G.J.W. gratefully acknowledges support of an Emeritus Fellowship from The Leverhulme Trust. EV is supported by Spanish grant PGC2018-101950-B-100. Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the researchers and engineers who are not co-authors of this paper but who have taken part and have brought their contribution to the proposed missions to ESA successive calls: NEAT (M3), micro-NEAT (S1), and Theia (M4 and M5). An extensive list of supporters for the science objectives is given in [17 ]. We thank also Arianna Gallo for her contribution in our investigation of the shape of the Milky Way dark matter halo and Krzysztof A. Rybicki who generated the plots from Fig. 14. We are grateful to the anonymous referee who helped to improve the quality of the paper with his/her remarks. Concerning the funding of our work, we would like to acknowledge the support of many agencies or programs. R.B. acknowledges support from NASA{\textquoteright}s Virtual Planetary Laboratory lead team under cooperative agreements NNA13AA93A. A.C.M.C. acknowledges support from CFisUC strategic project (UID/FIS/04564/2019). F.C. acknowledges support by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (COSMICLENS: grant agreement No. 787886). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s).",

year = "2021",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1007/s10686-021-09781-1",

language = "English",

volume = "51",

pages = "845--886",

journal = "Experimental Astronomy",

issn = "0922-6435",

publisher = "Springer Netherlands",

number = "3",

}

Malbet, F, Boehm, C, Krone-Martins, A, Amorim, A, Anglada-Escudé, G, Brandeker, A, Courbin, F, Enßlin, T, Falcão, A, Freese, K, Holl, B, Labadie, L, Léger, A, Mamon, GA, McArthur, B, Mora, A, Shao, M, Sozzetti, A, Spolyar, D, Villaver, E, Abbas, U, Albertus, C, Alves, J, Barnes, R, Bonomo, AS, Bouy, H, Brown, WR, Cardoso, V, Castellani, M, Chemin, L, Clark, H, Correia, ACM, Crosta, M, Crouzier, A, Damasso, M, Darling, J, Davies, MB, Diaferio, A, Fortin, M, Fridlund, M, Gai, M, Garcia, P, Gnedin, O, Goobar, A, Gordo, P, Goullioud, R, Hall, D, Hambly, N, Harrison, D, Hobbs, D, Holland, A, Høg, E, Jordi, C, Klioner, S, Lançon, A, Laskar, J, Lattanzi, M, Le Poncin-Lafitte, C, Luri, X, Michalik, D, de Almeida, AM, Mourão, A, Moustakas, L, Murray, NJ, Muterspaugh, M, Oertel, M, Ostorero, L, Portell, J, Prost, JP, Quirrenbach, A, Schneider, J, Scott, P, Siebert, A, Silva, AD, Silva, M, Thébault, P, Tomsick, J, Traub, W, de Val-Borro, M, Valluri, M, Walton, NA, White, G, Watkins, LL, Wyrzykowski, L, Wyse, R & Yamada, Y 2021, 'Faint objects in motion: the new frontier of high precision astrometry', Experimental Astronomy, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 845-886. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-021-09781-1

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

In: Experimental Astronomy, Vol. 51, No. 3, 06.2021, p. 845-886.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

TY - JOUR

T1 - Faint objects in motion

T2 - the new frontier of high precision astrometry

AU - Malbet, Fabien

AU - Boehm, Céline

AU - Krone-Martins, Alberto

AU - Amorim, Antonio

AU - Anglada-Escudé, Guillem

AU - Brandeker, Alexis

AU - Courbin, Frédéric

AU - Enßlin, Torsten

AU - Falcão, Antonio

AU - Freese, Katherine

AU - Holl, Berry

AU - Labadie, Lucas

AU - Léger, 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, João

AU - Barnes, Rory

AU - Bonomo, Aldo Stefano

AU - Bouy, Hervé

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 - Høg, Erik

AU - Jordi, Carme

AU - Klioner, Sergei

AU - Lançon, Ariane

AU - Laskar, Jacques

AU - Lattanzi, Mario

AU - Le Poncin-Lafitte, Christophe

AU - Luri, Xavier

AU - Michalik, Daniel

AU - de Almeida, André Moitinho

AU - Mourão, 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 - Silva, Antonio da

AU - Silva, Manuel

AU - Thébault, Philippe

AU - Tomsick, John

AU - Traub, Wesley

AU - de Val-Borro, Miguel

AU - Valluri, Monica

AU - Walton, Nicholas A.

AU - White, Glenn

AU - Watkins, Laura L.

AU - Wyrzykowski, Lukasz

AU - Wyse, Rosemary

AU - Yamada, Yoshiyuki

N1 - Funding Information: Open access funding provided by Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. Funding Information: Concerning the funding of our work, we would like to acknowledge the support of many agencies or programs. R.B. acknowledges support from NASA’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory lead team under cooperative agreements NNA13AA93A. A.C.M.C. acknowledges support from CFisUC strategic project (UID/FIS/04564/2019). F.C. acknowledges support by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (COSMICLENS: grant agreement No. 787886). M.F. received support from Polish National Science Centre (NCN) under Grant No. 2017/26/D/ST9/00591. M.F. gratefully acknowledge the support of the Swedish National Space Agency (DNR 65/19, 174/18). D.H. thanks the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA/Rymdstyrelsen) for their support. A.M. thanks the Portugese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the Strategic Programme UID/FIS/00099/2019 for CENTRA. P.S. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council under grant FT190100814. L.W. acknowledges support from the Polish NCN grants: Harmonia No. 2018/06M/ST9/00311 and Daina No. 2017/27/L/ST9/03221. The OATo team acknowledges partial funding by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) under contracts 2014-025-R.1.2015 and 2018-24-HH.0, and by a grant from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (ASTRA). A.C. and F.M. acknowledge support by the LabEx FOCUS ANR-11-LABX-0013. The work of C.J., X.L. and J.P. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University (MICIU/FEDER, UE) through grants RTI2018-095076-B-C21, ESP2016-80079-C2-1-R, and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences University of Barcelona (ICCUB, Unidad de Excelencia ’María de Maeztu’) through grants MDM-2014-0369 and CEX2019-000918-M. A.K.-M., A.A., V.C., P.G., P.G., A.M.A., A.M., M.S. were supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, with grants reference UIDB/00099/ 2020 and SFRH/BSAB/142940/2018 (P.G. only). A.D. and L.O. also acknowledge partial support from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the Departments of Excellence grant L.232/2016, and from the INFN grant InDark. G.J.W. gratefully acknowledges support of an Emeritus Fellowship from The Leverhulme Trust. EV is supported by Spanish grant PGC2018-101950-B-100. Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the researchers and engineers who are not co-authors of this paper but who have taken part and have brought their contribution to the proposed missions to ESA successive calls: NEAT (M3), micro-NEAT (S1), and Theia (M4 and M5). An extensive list of supporters for the science objectives is given in [17 ]. We thank also Arianna Gallo for her contribution in our investigation of the shape of the Milky Way dark matter halo and Krzysztof A. Rybicki who generated the plots from Fig. 14. We are grateful to the anonymous referee who helped to improve the quality of the paper with his/her remarks. Concerning the funding of our work, we would like to acknowledge the support of many agencies or programs. R.B. acknowledges support from NASA’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory lead team under cooperative agreements NNA13AA93A. A.C.M.C. acknowledges support from CFisUC strategic project (UID/FIS/04564/2019). F.C. acknowledges support by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (COSMICLENS: grant agreement No. 787886). Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

PY - 2021/6

Y1 - 2021/6

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 - Exoplanets

KW - Local universe

KW - Space mission

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114178329&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10686-021-09781-1

DO - 10.1007/s10686-021-09781-1

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85114178329

VL - 51

SP - 845

EP - 886

JO - Experimental Astronomy

JF - Experimental Astronomy

SN - 0922-6435

IS - 3

ER -

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

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