TeraHertz Exploration and Zooming-in for Astrophysics (THEZA): ESA Voyage 2050 White Paper
Research output: Working paper › Scientific
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Abstract
The astrophysical agenda of the 21st century requires a very sharp view
of celestial objects. High angular resolution studies are essential for
fundamental studies of a broad variety of astrophysical phenomena
ranging from relativistic physics of black holes, their gravitational
and electromagnetic imprints, violent transient processes, including
those producing detectable gravitational waves, birth and evolution of
planetary systems. Over the past decades, radio astronomy made huge leap
in achieving ground-breaking angular resolution measured in tens of
microarcseconds (one tenth of nanoradian and better). Recently a global
Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration obtained first direct images
of the shadow of a super-massive black hole in the nucleus of the active
galaxy M87. These observations were conducted at 230 GHz. The two first
generation Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) missions,
VSOP/HALCA led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and
RadioAstron led by the Russia Roscosmos State Corporation and Russia
Academy of Sciences, achieved the highest angular resolution at
frequencies from 0.3 to 22 GHz in observations conducted in the period
1997 - 2019. The next step in advancing high angular resolution radio
astronomy is in combining high frequency (millimeter and sub-millimeter
wavelengths) and interferometric baselines exceeding the Earth diameter.
The present THEZA White Paper describes a combination which would unify
technology developments in giga-/tera-hertz instrumentation and
space-borne radio astronomy. The current preprint version of the THEZA
White Paper is slightly re-formatted and edited comparing to the
official submitted version.
Details
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published - Aug 2019 |
MoE publication type | Not Eligible |
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Research areas
ID: 36684041