Space astrometry project JASMINE Original Research Article

A Japanese plan for an infrared (z-band: 0.9 m) space astrometry project, JASMINE, is introduced. JASMINE is a satellite (Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission for INfrared Exploration) to measure distances and apparent motions of stars in the bulge of the Milky Way with yet unprecedented precision. It will measure parallaxes and positions with an accuracy of 10 μarcsec and proper motions with an accuracy of 4 μarcsec/year for stars brighter than z = 14 mag. JASMINE will observe about 10 million stars belonging to the bulge component of our Galaxy. With a completely new “map of the Galactic bulge”, it is expected that many new exciting scientific results will be obtained in various fields of astronomy.Presently, JASMINE is in the development phase, with a target launch date around 2015. Overall system (bus) design is presently ongoing, in cooperation with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Preliminary design of instruments, observing strategy, data reduction, and critical technical issues for JASMINE will be described.