American Astronautical Society, Astronauts and Robots: Partners in Space Exploration, May 12-13, 2015 - http://astronautical.org/event/astronauts-robots

1. Astrophysics
Jonas Zmuidzinas

2. HST 25th anniversary – April 24, 2015

3. Hubble Ultra-Deep Field 2014

4. Cosmic Timeline
HST galaxies

5. Keck I & II
10m telecopes
Mauna Kea, HI

6. Cosmic Timeline
CMB - Cosmic
Microwave
Background

7. Planck map of CMB - December 2014
Planck spacecraft, awaiting launch in Kourou, 2009 Planck HFI focal plane – JPL/MDL

8. CMB polarization – signature of inflation?
March 2014 BICEP 2 detectors
JPL/MDL
December 2014: Planck + BICEP2 - dust !

9. Spider balloon payload – 6x BICEP2
Jan. 17, 2015
Feb. 6, 2015
6 telescopes: 3 x 100 GHz + 3 x 150 GHz

10. HST + Planck: What reionized the
universe, and when did this happen ?

12. World’s largest ground-based astronomy project
ALMA = Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array
Atacama plateau, Chile
Enabled by superconducting detectors

13. Nature, 2015
z = 7.5

14. Largest space telescope:
Herschel Space Observatory

15. Herschel 2010: The universe is full of dusty galaxies…
May 6, 2009
15

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 ?

18. ALMA Image of Planet Formation in HL Tau
C. Brogan et al., 2015
35 mas resolution

19. Kepler: time domain astronomy
100 Mpixels

20. Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
3 Gpixels
8 m telescope
FOV - 10 sq. degrees

21. LSST preview: Pan-STARRS
1.4 Gpixel cameraMarch 2015
1.8 m telescope

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

24. X-ray telescopes
XMM - Newton Chandra

25. NuSTAR: hard X-ray telescope
Fiona Harrison, Caltech:
NuSTAR P.I.
NuSTAR launch: June 13, 2012

26. February 2013

27. ESA L2: Athena
November 2013
Enabling technology: superconducting microcalorimeter detectors

28. NASA Astrophysics 30-year Roadmap (2013)

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