Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Astronomical opportunities

Nature Photonics volume 1, pages 605–607 (2007)Cite this article

Sophisticated imaging technology will be important for the European Space Agency's Cosmic Vision programme, which aims to answer fundamental questions about the Universe and its origins.

Astronomy, the quest to understand the Universe and its evolution, is the mother of all sciences. Most of our information on celestial objects comes through capturing the electromagnetic radiation that planets, stars and galaxies emit. In recent years, placing telescopes in orbit has provided astronomers with an immense leap in their powers of observation. Ten to twenty years from now, a succession of new space observatories are expected to be ready to fly as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Cosmic Vision programme1, which will run between 2015 and 2025 and will tackle major scientific questions, such as: What are the necessary conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life? How does the Solar System work? What are the fundamental laws of physics of the Universe? How did the Universe originate and what is it made of?

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1

ESA

Figure 2

ESA

Figure 3: A schematic of the four-telescope interferometer concept.

References

  1. European Space Agency Cosmic Vision: Space Science for Europe 2015-2025 Document BR-247 (ESA publications division, 2005).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philippe Gondoin is at the European Space Agency, ESTEC, Noordwijk, 2200 AG, The Netherlands. Philippe.Gondoin@esa.int,

    Philippe Gondoin

Authors
  1. Philippe Gondoin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gondoin, P. Astronomical opportunities. Nature Photon 1, 605–607 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2007.207

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2007.207

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing