AAS 199th meeting, Washington, DC, January 2002
Session 111. Science with Wide Field Imaging in Space
Oral, Wednesday, January 9, 2002, 10:00-11:30am, Georgetown East

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[111.01] The Astronomical Potential of Wide-field Imaging from Space

S. Beckwith (Space Telescope Science Institute)

Wide-field imaging is best done from space. Unrestricted by seeing and the limitations of an isoplanatic patch, it should be possible to construct space telescopes delivering very wide fields of diffraction-limited images with enormous information content per image. Among the science programs that will benefit are complete sky surveys to look for rare objects, staring observations to look for microlensing events, monitoring of star clusters to look for eclipses by extra-solar planets, regular surveys of large regions to search for time-variable phenomena, especially supernovae, and repeated observations of the ecliptic to identify ``killer asteroids" and other interlopers. This talk will discuss some of the science that could be enabled by wide-field imaging telescopes in space such as the SNAP satellite.


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