Faint objects in motion: the new frontier of high precision astrometry
Creators: name: Malbet, Fabien
name: Boehm, Céline
name: Krone-Martins, Alberto
name: Amorim, Antonio
name: Anglada-Escudé, Guillem
name: Brandeker, Alexis
name: Courbin, Frédéric
name: Enßlin, Torsten
name: Falcão, Antonio
name: Freese, Katherine
name: Holl, Berry
name: Labadie, Lucas
name: Léger, Alain
name: Mamon, Gary
name: Mcarthur, Barbara
name: Mora, Alcione
name: Shao, Mike
name: Sozzetti, Alessandro
name: Spolyar, Douglas
name: Villaver, Eva
name: Abbas, Ummi
name: Albertus, Conrado
name: Alves, João
name: Barnes, Rory
name: Bonomo, Aldo Stefano
name: Bouy, Hervé
name: Brown, Warren
name: Cardoso, Vitor
name: Castellani, Marco
name: Chemin, Laurent
name: Clark, Hamish
name: Correia, Alexandre
name: Crosta, Mariateresa
name: Crouzier, Antoine
name: Damasso, Mario
name: Darling, Jeremy
name: Davies, Melvyn
name: Diaferio, Antonaldo
name: Fortin, Morgane
name: Fridlund, Malcolm
name: Gai, Mario
name: Garcia, Paulo
name: Gnedin, Oleg
name: Goobar, Ariel
name: Gordo, Paulo
name: Goullioud, Renaud
name: Hall, David
name: Hambly, Nigel
name: Harrison, Diana
name: Hobbs, David
name: Holland, Andrew
name: Høg, Erik
name: Jordi, Carme
name: Klioner, Sergei
name: Lançon, Ariane
name: Laskar, Jacques
name: Lattanzi, Mario
name: Poncin-Lafitte, Christophe Le
name: Luri, Xavier
name: Michalik, Daniel
name: de Almeida, André Moitinho
name: Mourão, Ana
name: Moustakas, Leonidas
name: Murray, Neil
name: Muterspaugh, Matthew
name: Oertel, Micaela
name: Ostorero, Luisa
name: Portell, Jordi
name: Prost, Jean-Pierre
name: Quirrenbach, Andreas
name: Schneider, Jean
name: Scott, Pat
name: Siebert, Arnaud
name: Da Silva, Antonio
name: Silva, Manuel
name: Thébault, Philippe
name: Tomsick, John
name: Traub, Wesley
name: de Val-Borro, Miguel
name: Valluri, Monica
name: Walton, Nicholas
name: Watkins, Laura
name: White, Glenn
name: Wyrzykowski, Lukasz
name: Wyse, Rosemary
name: Yamada, Yoshiyuki
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: 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.
description: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1910.08028, arXiv:1707.01348