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SIM Newsletter
" F R I N G E S "
Space Interferometry Mission Newsletter
Number 41, January 4, 2008
CONTENTS
1. Editorial
2. Evening Session at AAS Meeting - January 9
3. Major SIM paper to be published in PASP
1. Editorial
Because of unprecedented pressures on the NASA Science Mission Directorate budget, funding for SIM PlanetQuest was drastically reduced in 2007. This has obviously resulted in a slowdown of the project, and a long slip in launch date We will provide more information on the very uncertain budget situation in future Newsletter.
Some comments from the last Newsletter, almost a year ago, are still relevant:
The scientific motivation for the mission is as strong as ever. Indeed, as the capabilities of a flexible instrument for microarcsecond astrometry are more widely appreciated, new scientific applications are added to those already planned.
SIM is an entirely new kind of telescope, unlike any other that has been flown, or planned for flight. With over 11 years of technological development behind it, the project has retired every one of its technological challenges. The current effort is focused in two areas. Firstly, to continue to reduce 'engineering risk'; essentially, this means translating the performance already demonstrated in our testbeds into hardware and software that can fly in space. Second, to continue exploring the trade space of design parameters, to find the most capable, cost-effective mission for NASA to proceed with.
The SIM Team remains enthusiastically dedicated to developing this new telescope for the astronomical community to use. There will be opportunities for astronomers to propose observations for novel experiments in precision astrometry - a chance for everyone to use this capability.
We want to be sure the science community learns about and understands the unique capabilities that SIM has to offer. Traditional measures of performance like telescope diameter, field of view, and spectral resolution don't capture the performance of anastrometric instrument. So, we will continue to share our excitement for the science of precision astrometry through journal papers, conferences and workshops, as noted below.
2. Evening Session at AAS Meeting - January 9
Join us on Wednesday evening (Jan 9, the second full day) of the upcoming American Astronomical Society Meeting in Austin, Texas to learn more about SIM. At this session, experts will cover the wide range of problems in modern astrophysics addressed by astrometry with SIM. Also at the AAS, drop by the Exoplanets Exploration booth in the exhibit area and ask us for a preprint of the SIM science paper (see below). Here are the session details:
"Cosmology and Astrophysics from Space Astrometry"
Wednesday, January 9, 830-1000pm
Hilton Hotel Austin - Salon A
Dessert provided; cash bar available
http://www.aas.org/meetings/aas211/schedule_scientific.php
3. Major SIM paper to be published in PASP
A large paper describing SIM's scientific capabilities will be published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP), January 2008. This refereed paper was assembled by SIM Deputy Project Scientist Steve Unwin from contributions provided by every member of the SIM Science Team, and a number of other interested astrometrists. All told, the paper has 36 authors, and runs to about 50 pages.
Notable in this paper are very specific examples of what SIM can do, including results of detailed simulations. These are not hypothetical capabilities. In many cases specific target lists, or detailed selection criteria are provided. Most of the science goals in the paper represent real experiments planned by the Science Team, carefully optimized through NASA-supported preparatory science studies. This paper shows in considerable detail the power of precision astrometry across many areas of modern astrophysics - from terrestrial-mass planets, to stellar astrophysics, interacting binary stars, the structure, dynamics and evolution of the Galaxy, the history and future of the Local Group, and probing the internal structure of quasars.
Your can view a preprint version of the paper at the following link on the arXiv server:
Taking the Measure of the Universe: Precision Astrometry with SIM PlanetQuest
Stephen C. Unwin, et al.
PASP, in press, January 2008 issue
http://arxiv.org/abs708.3953
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Steve Unwin, Editor stephen.unwin'at'jpl.nasa.gov
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