MSV-2035 Astronomy Document - Inside Design - FINAL - FINAL

Astronomy & Astrophysics 34 techniques. The Coronagraph instrument will be used to performhigh contrast imaging and spectroscopy of individual nearby exoplanets. The proposed mission lifetime is 5 years, with a potential to extend it by 5more years. The Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) is a small X-ray telescope satellite under development by China National Space Administration (CNSA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the French Space Agency (CNES), launched in June 2024. The main scientific aim of this mission is to study the gamma-ray burst events resulting from the explosions of massive stars. 3.4.3 Surveys for Solar SystemObjects The Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) programme using the HST is an example of a long term, deep time survey of the solar system that has established a baseline of consistent data with a yearly cadence since 2014. Similar deep time survey programmes are envisaged with the mega facilities such as the JWST and ELTs in the future. The study of asteroids, comets and atmospheres of planets are some key science programmes of all the future major facilities. The JWST will observe asteroids in the wavelength regions that are not possible from the ground. This will add to our understanding of surface composition, alteration and physical properties of asteroids. There are a few dedicated surveys conducted by ground-based 1–2-meter class optical telescopes for detection and follow-up of Near-Earth objects (NEOs). While the completeness of these surveys exceeds 90% for NEOs larger than 1 km in effective diameter, the completeness is around 30% for NEOs larger than 140 m, and just around 1% for objects of the size ~20-50m. At present, surveys such as the ZTF survey and international collaborations such as the GROWTH collaboration are concentrating on the smaller sized NEOs. TheWISE/NEOWISEmission is probably the only space based telescope involved in NEO survey. Future surveys such as the LSST and NEOCam are expected to increase the completeness factors. LSSTwill also enable characterisation of these objects. In addition to ground based observations in the optical, telescopes operating in the radio and millimeter wave regions are also proposed to be utilised for survey and studies of NEOs. Such multiwavelength studies are ideal to characterise different populations and also enable more intensive time-resolved follow-up for unresolved objects. Needless to mention that any survey dedicated for the search of NEOs will also enable detection of the interstellar objects. 3.5 CMBRExperiments The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) is a nearly isotropic, black-body radiation possessing a temperature of 2.725K today. The CMB photons arriving at us today fromdifferent directions in the sky have travelled unimpeded across the observable universe (13 billion light years) and show tiny variations in temperature (CMB anisotropies) and a net linear polarisation pattern that are imprints of themildly perturbed earlyUniverse. Over the past two decades, CMBR observations from space have provided the cleanest and richest source of data for understanding our Universe. Most of the cosmological information in the CMB temperature fluctuations has been harvested by European Space Agency's Planck mission that was launched in 2009, the third generation of the spectacularly successful CMB space missions following COBE DMR (NASA, 1989) and WMAP (NASA, 2001). This has led us to converge on a standard model of cosmology and determine the parameters involved to a high precision. These observations have also provided important constraints on the neutrino mass, electron scattering • MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035