The Science Case for PILOT III: the Nearby Universe

Abstract

PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope is a proposed 2.5 m optical/infrared telescope to be located at DomeC on the Antarctic plateau. The atmospheric conditions at Dome C deliver a high sensitivity, high photometric precision, wide-field, high spatial resolution, and high-cadence imaging capability to the PILOT telescope. These capabilities enable a unique scientific potential for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents a series of projects dealing with the nearby Universe that have been identified as key science drivers for the PILOT facility. Several projects are proposed that examine stellar populations in nearby galaxies and stellar clusters in order to gain insight into the formation and evolution processes of galaxies and stars. A series of projects will investigate the molecular phase of the Galaxy and explore the ecology of star formation, and investigate the formation processes of stellar and planetary systems. Three projects in the field of exoplanet science are proposed: a search for free-floating low-mass planets and dwarfs, a program of follow-up observations of gravitational microlensing events, and a study of infrared light-curves for previously discovered exoplanets. Three projects are also proposed in the field of planetary and space science: optical and near-infrared studies aimed at characterising planetary atmospheres, a study of coronal mass ejections from the Sun, and a monitoring program searching for small-scale Low Earth Orbit satellite debris items.

27 pages, 16 figures (degraded quality), accepted for publication in PASA

References in corpus (28)

• DHP Framework: Digital Health Passports Using Blockchain -- Use case on international tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic
• The Haunted Halos of Andromeda and Triangulum: A panorama of galaxy formation in action
• Discovery of a Jupiter/Saturn Analog with Gravitational Microlensing
• Microlens OGLE-2005-BLG-169 Implies Cool Neptune-Like Planets are Common
• The Broadband Infrared Emission Spectrum of the Exoplanet HD 189733b
• A Low-Mass Planet with a Possible Sub-Stellar-Mass Host in Microlensing Event MOA-2007-BLG-192
• On the Rapid Collapse and Evolution of Molecular Clouds
• The Disk Population of the Chamaeleon I Star-Forming Region
• Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars XI: The Tidal Tails of the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal and the Discovery of Magellanic Cloud Stars in the Carina Foreground
• Identification of the OGLE-2003-BLG-235/MOA-2003-BLG-53 Planetary Host Star
• The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: The luminosity functions of bulges and discs and their implied stellar mass densities
• The Araucaria Project. The Distance to the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy from infrared photometry of RR Lyrae stars
• The Spitzer c2d Survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds.X. The Chamaeleon II Pre-Main Sequence Population as Observed With IRAC and MIPS
• Luminosity and stellar mass functions of disks and spheroids in the SDSS and the supermassive black hole mass function
• Hot Jupiter Variability in Eclipse Depth
• The Rotation of Sub-Populations in omega Centauri
• The Abundance Gradient in the Extremely Faint Outer Disk of NGC 300
• Atmospheric scintillation at Dome C, Antarctica: implications for photometry and astrometry
• Prospects of long-time-series observations from Dome C for transit search
• C stars in the outer spheroid of NGC 6822
• Determination of stellar shape in microlensing event MOA 2002-BLG-33
• On the Origin of Mass--Metallicity Relations, Blue Tilts, and Scaling Relations for Metal-poor Globular Cluster Systems
• The Science Case for PILOT I: Summary and Overview
• First time-series optical photometry from Antarctica
• The Science Case for PILOT II: the Distant Universe
• The Molecular Hydrogen Explorer H2EX
• High magnification events by MOA in 2007
• Spitzer IRS Observations of Disks around Brown Dwarfs in the TW Hydra Association

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Astronomy in Antarctica
• The Science Case for PILOT I: Summary and Overview
• Scientific Goals of the Kunlun Infrared Sky Survey (KISS)
• Optimising the K dark filter for the Kunlun Infrared Sky Survey
• The Science Case for PILOT II: the Distant Universe
• A Next Generation Deep 2 micron Survey: Reconnoitering the Dark Ages