论文标题
与小卫星的天文学的未来
The future of astronomy with small satellites
论文作者
论文摘要
在过去的十年中，小型卫星的数量从2010年代中期每年的数十颗卫星到了2020年代中期的数万轨道投影。这既提出了观察天文学的问题和机会。小型卫星为地面天文学和更大的太空任务提供了互补的成本效益。与地面天文学相比，这些优势不仅在于地球大气不透明的波长范围内，而且还具有稳定的，高精度的光度法，长期监测和改善的面积覆盖率。天文学具有悠久的新观测参数空间的历史，导致了重大发现。在这里，我们讨论了小型卫星探索天体物理学中的新参数空间的潜力，借鉴了当前和拟议的任务的示例，并涵盖了从二元恒星，系外行星和太阳系科学到早期宇宙和基本物理学的广泛科学目标。
The number of small satellites has grown dramatically in the past decade from tens of satellites per year in the mid-2010s to a projection of tens of thousands in orbit by the mid-2020s. This presents both problems and opportunities for observational astronomy. Small satellites offer complementary cost-effective capabilities to both ground-based astronomy and larger space missions. Compared to ground-based astronomy, these advantages are not just in the accessibility of wavelength ranges where the Earth's atmosphere is opaque, but also in stable, high precision photometry, long-term monitoring and improved areal coverage. Astronomy has a long history of new observational parameter spaces leading to major discoveries. Here we discuss the potential for small satellites to explore new parameter spaces in astrophysics, drawing on examples from current and proposed missions, and spanning a wide range of science goals from binary stars, exoplanets and solar system science to the early Universe and fundamental physics.
