American Astronautical Society, Astronauts and Robots: Partners in Space Exploration, May 12-13, 2015 - http://astronautical.org/event/astronauts-robots
10. HST + Planck: What reionized the
universe, and when did this happen ?
11.
12. World’s largest ground-based astronomy project
ALMA = Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array
Atacama plateau, Chile
Enabled by superconducting detectors
16. HSO/HIFI finds water plumes from Ceres
Kuppers et al 2014, Nature 505
NASA/JPL’s Dawn spacecraft arriving at Ceres (March 2015)
557 GHz
rH ~ 2.7 AU (vs Mars ~ 1.5 AU)
Bright spots ?
17.
18. ALMA Image of Planet Formation in HL Tau
C. Brogan et al., 2015
35 mas resolution
22. • NASA Explorer mission to observe transients
• objects in the universe
– Launched November 20, 2004
• BAT wide-field gamma-ray instrument
• detects new transient sources
• On-board software finds new source, does
• constraint check and slews spacecraft for
• X-ray and UV optical observations
• Discoveries:
• - Origin of gamma-ray busts
• - Supernova shock break-out
• - Tidal disruption of star by black hole
Swift – Autonomous time-domain astronomy
BAT
XRTUVOT
Neil Gehrels
NASA/GSFC
SWIFT P.I.
23. Nature, August 2012
VLA image of radio jets produced by
accretion onto a SMBH
Disruption of star by SMBH
29. Preparing for the 2020 U.S. Decadal Survey
• NASA will support studies of 3-4 missions in the $1-2B range
• The initial short list of candidates (Paul Hertz, January 2015 AAS):
– FAR IR Surveyor–The Astrophysics Visionary Roadmap identifies a Far IR
Surveyor as contributing through improvements in sensitivity, spectroscopy,
and angular resolution.
– Habitable-Exoplanet Imaging Mission–The 2010 Decadal Survey recommends
that a habitable-exoplanet imaging mission be studied in time for
consideration by the 2020 decadal survey.
– UV/Optical/IR Surveyor–The Astrophysics Visionary Roadmap identifies a
UV/Optical/IR Surveyor as contributing through improvements in sensitivity,
spectroscopy, high contrast imaging, astrometry, angular resolution and/or
wavelength coverage. The 2010 Decadal Survey recommends that NASA
prepare for a UV mission to be considered by the 2020 Decadal Survey.
– X-ray Surveyor – The Astrophysics Visionary Roadmap identifies an X-ray
Surveyor as contributing through improvements in sensitivity, spectroscopy,
and angular resolution.
• N.B. – ESA’s Athena