The SIM Lite Astrometric Observatory
Abstract
SIM Lite is an observatory mission dedicated to precision astrometry. With a single measurement accuracy of 1 microarcsecond (µas) and a noise floor below 0.035 µas it will have the capability to do an extensive search for Earth-mass planets in the `habitable zone’ around several dozen of the nearest stars. SIM Lite maintains its wide-angle accuracy of 4 µas for all targets down to V = 19, limited only by observing time. This opens up a wide array of astrophysical problems. As a flexibly pointed instrument, it is a natural complement to sky surveys such as JMAPS and Gaia, and will tackle questions that don't require the acquisition of statistics on a large number of targets. It will provide accurate masses for the first time for a variety of exotic star types, including X-ray binaries; it will study the structure and evolution of our Galaxy through tidal streams from dwarf spheroidals and the trajectories of halo stars and galaxies. Its faint-target capability will enable the use of astrometric and photometric variability as a probe of the disk accretion and jet formation processes in blazars. SIM Lite will have an extensive GO (General Observer) program, open to all categories of astrometric science. The project successfully completed a series of technology milestones in 2005, and is currently under study by by NASA as a flight mission.
The research described in this talk was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #214
- Pub Date:
- May 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AAS...21424901U