Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) for Planetary Atmospheric Studies

RadioAstron as a target and as an instrument: Enhancing the Space VLBI mission’s scientific output

Context. The accuracy of orbit determination has a strong impact on the scientific output of the Space VLBI mission RadioAstron. Aims. The aim of this work is to improve the RadioAstron orbit reconstruction by means of sophisticated dynamical modelling of its motion in combination with multi-station Doppler tracking of the RadioAstron spacecraft...

Studies of relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei with SKA

Relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are among the most powerful astrophysical objects discovered to date. Indeed, jetted AGN studies have been considered a prominent science case for SKA, and were included in several different chapters of the previous SKA Science Book (Carilli & Rawlings 2004). Most of the fundamental questions...

Very long baseline interferometry with the SKA

Adding VLBI capability to the SKA arrays will greatly broaden the science of the SKA, and is feasible within the current specifications. SKA-VLBI can be initially implemented by providing phased-array outputs for SKA1-MID and SKA1-SUR and using these extremely sensitive stations with other radio telescopes, and in SKA2 by realising a distributed...

Searching for extraterrestrial intelligence with the square kilometre array

The Jupiter icy moons explorer (JUICE): Complementarity of the payload in addressing the mission science objectives (abstract)

This presentation will give a status of the JUICE mission in the end of the definition phase, its science scenario, and the observation strategies that are foreseen with a strong emphasis on the complemen-tarity of the suite of instruments. To summarize, the instrument suite on-board JUICE will allow the inte-gration of datasets into a...

J1026+2542: Proper motion in a blazar jet at z=5.27

The radio-loud AGN J1026+2542 has recently been classified as the second most distant blazar, based on its broad-band spectral energy distribution and X-ray spectrum. The source with a prominent one-sided jet extending to at least ?20 mas was earlier observed with the VLBA at 5 GHz in January 2006. With our new EVN observation (May 2013), we...

VLBI observations of the radio quasar J2228+0110 at z=5.95 and other field sources in multiple-phase-centre mode

A patch of sky in the SDSS Stripe 82 was observed at 1.6 GHz with Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) using the European VLBI Network (EVN). The data were correlated at the EVN software correlator at JIVE (SFXC). There are fifteen known mJy/sub-mJy radio sources in the target field defined by the primary beam size of a typical 30-m class...

Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE): Science Objectives, Mission and Instruments (abstract)

The JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is a European Space Agency mission that will fly by and observe the Galilean satellites Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, characterize the Jovian system in a lengthy Jupiter-orbit phase, and ultimately orbit Ganymede for in-depth studies of habitability, evolution and the local environment [1].

A VLBI view on the extreme scintillator J1819+3845

Scintillation of flat spectrum radio sources provides a unique instrument to study the characteristics of the electron density distribution throughout the interstellar medium as well as to study the microarcsecond structure of compact radio objects. During the course of its extreme activity, the quasar J1819+3845 has been observed with a number...

Spacecraft VLBI and Doppler tracking: Algorithms and implementation

Aims. We present the results of several multi-station Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) experiments conducted with the ESA spacecraft Venus Express as a target. To determine the true capabilities of VLBI tracking for future planetary missions in the solar system, it is necessary to demonstrate the accuracy of the method for existing...

Farside explorer: Unique science from a mission to the farside of the moon

Farside Explorer is a proposed Cosmic Vision medium-size mission to the farside of theMoon consisting of two landers and an instrumented relay satellite. The farside of the Moon is a unique scientific platform in that it is shielded from terrestrial radio-frequency interference, it recorded the primary differentiation and evolution of the Moon,...

Into the central 10 pc of the most distant known radio quasar

There are about 60 quasars known at redshifts z > 5.7 to date. Only three of them are detected in the radio above 1 mJy flux density at 1.4 GHz frequency. Among them, J1429+5447 (z = 6.21) is the highest-redshift radio quasar known at present. These rare, distant, and powerful objects provide important insight into the activity of the...