What do astronomers want from the STFC?

Astronomy and Geophysics Oxford University Press 60:2 (2019) 2.13-2.17

Authors:

Stephen Serjeant, James Bolton, Poshak Gandhi, Christiane Helling, Paolo Mazzali, Ben Stappers, Yvonne Unruh, Aprajita Verma

Abstract:

Stephen Serjeant and the STFC's Astronomy Advisory Panel summarize community responses to its consultation on research priorities, undertaken in November 2018.

Detecting Earth-like Biosignatures on Rocky Exoplanets around Nearby Stars with Ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes

(2019)

Authors:

Mercedes López-Morales, Thayne Currie, Johanna Teske, Eric Gaidos, Eliza Kempton, Jared Males, Nikole Lewis, Benjamin V Rackham, Sagi Ben-Ami, Jayne Birkby, David Charbonneau, Laird Close, Jeff Crane, Courtney Dressing, Cynthia Froning, Yasuhiro Hasegawa, Quinn Konopacky, Ravi K Kopparapu, Dimitri Mawet, Bertrand Mennesson, Ramses Ramirez, Deno Stelter, Andrew Szentgyorgyi, Ji Wang

Single-object Imaging and Spectroscopy to Enhance Dark Energy Science from LSST

ArXiv 1903.09324 (2019)

Authors:

Renée A Hložek, Thomas Collett, Lluís Galbany, Daniel A Goldstein, Saurabh W Jha, Alex G Kim, Rachel Mandelbaum, Jeffrey A Newman, Saul Perlmutter, Daniel J Perrefort, Mark Sullivan, Aprajita Verma

4MOST: Project overview and information for the First Call for Proposals

ArXiv 1903.02464 (2019)

Authors:

RS de Jong, O Agertz, A Agudo Berbel, J Aird, DA Alexander, A Amarsi, F Anders, R Andrae, B Ansarinejad, W Ansorge, P Antilogus, H Anwand-Heerwart, A Arentsen, A Arnadottir, M Asplund, M Auger, N Azais, D Baade, G Baker, S Baker, E Balbinot, IK Baldry, M Banerji, S Barden, P Barklem, E Barthélémy-Mazot, C Battistini, S Bauer, CPM Bell, O Bellido-Tirado, S Bellstedt, V Belokurov, T Bensby, M Bergemann, JM Bestenlehner, R Bielby, M Bilicki, C Blake, J Bland-Hawthorn, C Boeche, W Boland, T Boller, S Bongard, A Bongiorno, P Bonifacio, D Boudon, D Brooks, MJI Brown, R Brown, M Brüggen, J Brynnel, J Brzeski, T Buchert, P Buschkamp, E Caffau, P Caillier, J Carrick, L Casagrande, S Case, A Casey, I Cesarini, G Cescutti, D Chapuis, C Chiappini, M Childress, N Christlieb, R Church, M-RL Cioni, M Cluver, M Colless, T Collett, J Comparat, A Cooper, W Couch, F Courbin, S Croom, D Croton, E Daguisé, G Dalton, LJM Davies, T Davis, P de Laverny, A Deason, F Dionies, K Disseau, P Doel, D Döscher, SP Driver, T Dwelly, D Eckert, A Edge, B Edvardsson, D El Youssoufi, A Elhaddad, H Enke, G Erfanianfar, T Farrell, T Fechner, C Feiz, S Feltzing, I Ferreras, D Feuerstein, D Feuillet, A Finoguenov, D Ford, S Fotopoulou, M Fouesneau, C Frenk, S Frey, W Gaessler, S Geier, N Gentile Fusillo, O Gerhard, T Giannantonio, D Giannone, B Gibson, P Gillingham, C González-Fernández, E Gonzalez-Solares, S Gottloeber, A Gould, EK Grebel, A Gueguen, G Guiglion, M Haehnelt, T Hahn, CJ Hansen, H Hartman, K Hauptner, K Hawkins, D Haynes, R Haynes, U Heiter, A Helmi, C Hernandez Aguayo, P Hewett, S Hinton, D Hobbs, S Hoenig, D Hofman, I Hook, J Hopgood, A Hopkins, A Hourihane, L Howes, C Howlett, T Huet, M Irwin, O Iwert, P Jablonka, T Jahn, K Jahnke, A Jarno, S Jin, P Jofre, D Johl, D Jones, H Jönsson, C Jordan, I Karovicova, A Khalatyan, A Kelz, R Kennicutt, D King, F Kitaura, J Klar, U Klauser, J Kneib, A Koch, S Koposov, G Kordopatis, A Korn, J Kosmalski, R Kotak, M Kovalev, K Kreckel, Y Kripak, M Krumpe, K Kuijken, A Kunder, I Kushniruk, MI Lam, G Lamer, F Laurent, J Lawrence, M Lehmitz, B Lemasle, J Lewis, B Li, C Lidman, K Lind, J Liske, J-L Lizon, J Loveday, H-G Ludwig, RM McDermid, K Maguire, V Mainieri, S Mali, H Mandel, K Mandel, L Mannering, S Martell, D Martinez Delgado, G Matijevic, H McGregor, R McMahon, P McMillan, O Mena, A Merloni, MJ Meyer, C Michel, G Micheva, J-E Migniau, I Minchev, G Monari, R Muller, D Murphy, D Muthukrishna, K Nandra, R Navarro, M Ness, V Nichani, R Nichol, H Nicklas, F Niederhofer, P Norberg, D Obreschkow, S Oliver, M Owers, N Pai, S Pankratow, D Parkinson, I Parry, J Paschke, R Paterson, A Pecontal, D Phillips, A Pillepich, L Pinard, J Pirard, N Piskunov, V Plank, D Plüschke, E Pons, P Popesso, C Power, J Pragt, A Pramskiy, D Pryer, M Quattri, AB de Andrade Queiroz, A Quirrenbach, S Rahurkar, A Raichoor, S Ramstedt, A Rau, A Recio-Blanco, R Reiss, F Renaud, Y Revaz, P Rhode, J Richard, AD Richter, H-W Rix, ASG Robotham, R Roelfsema, M Romaniello, D Rosario, F Rothmaier, B Roukema, G Ruchti, G Rupprecht, J Rybizki, N Ryde, A Saar, E Sadler, M Sahlén, M Salvato, B Sassolas, W Saunders, A Saviauk, L Sbordone, T Schmidt, O Schnurr, R-D Scholz, A Schwope, W Seifert, T Shanks, A Sheinis, T Sivov, Á Skúladóttir, S Smartt, S Smedley, G Smith, R Smith, J Sorce, L Spitler, E Starkenburg, M Steinmetz, I Stilz, J Storm, M Sullivan, W Sutherland, E Swann, A Tamone, EN Taylor, J Teillon, E Tempel, R ter Horst, W-F Thi, E Tolstoy, S Trager, G Traven, P-E Tremblay, L Tresse, M Valentini, R van de Weygaert, M van den Ancker, J Veljanoski, S Venkatesan, L Wagner, K Wagner, CJ Walcher, L Waller, N Walton, L Wang, R Winkler, L Wisotzki, CC Worley, G Worseck, M Xiang, W Xu, D Yong, C Zhao, J Zheng, F Zscheyge, D Zucker

Abstract:

We introduce the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), a new high-multiplex, wide-field spectroscopic survey facility under development for the four-metre-class Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at Paranal. Its key specifications are: a large field of view (FoV) of 4.2 square degrees and a high multiplex capability, with 1624 fibres feeding two low-resolution spectrographs ($R = \lambda/\Delta\lambda \sim 6500$), and 812 fibres transferring light to the high-resolution spectrograph ($R \sim 20\,000$). After a description of the instrument and its expected performance, a short overview is given of its operational scheme and planned 4MOST Consortium science; these aspects are covered in more detail in other articles in this edition of The Messenger. Finally, the processes, schedules, and policies concerning the selection of ESO Community Surveys are presented, commencing with a singular opportunity to submit Letters of Intent for Public Surveys during the first five years of 4MOST operations.

RoboPol: A four-channel optical imaging polarimeter

ArXiv 1902.08367 (2019)

Authors:

AN Ramaprakash, CV Rajarshi, HK Das, P Khodade, D Modi, G Panopoulou, S Maharana, D Blinov, E Angelakis, C Casadio, L Fuhrmann, T Hovatta, S Kiehlmann, OG King, N Kylafis, A Kougentakis, A Kus, A Mahabal, A Marecki, I Myserlis, G Paterakis, E Paleologou, I Liodakis, I Papadakis, I Papamastorakis, V Pavlidou, E Pazderski, TJ Pearson, ACS Readhead, P Reig, A Slowikowska, K Tassis, JA Zensus