Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 380
This version created on 06 October 2006

General Astrophysics with Darwin/TPF


Huub Rottgering, Leiden University

NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) and ESA's Darwin
Interferometer (Darwin) will provide orders of magnitude
improvements in angular resolution in the 5 to 20 micron
wavelength range over current ground-based or space-based
telescopes at a sensitivity similar to JWST. In this
contribution we will describe the foreseen scientific
capabilities of the Darwin/TPF mission and discuss the dramatic
impact that Darwin/TPF will have on almost all areas of
astrophysics. These areas include Solar System, the
circumstellar environments of young, mature, and dying stars,
the formation and maturation of stars and their planetary
systems, mass recycling, the birth of star clusters in nearby
galaxies, the circum-nuclear environments of galaxies, the
evolution of black holes, and the formation and evolution of
galaxies.

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