Alberto Krone-Martins (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)

21st Century Astrometry: from ESA/Gaia and beyond // Astrometry stands among the most fundamental and transversal branches of Astronomy. It lays at the basis of most astronomical studies and provides anchors to many aspects of human life: from our daily cycles to satellite and spacecraft navigation and attitude control. In this talk I will briefly comment on some episodes of optical Astrometry past, and then concentrate in the space-Astrometry exciting present and future promises. I will briefly present an overview of some science cases enabled by optical Astrometry during our century. This is expected to cross gravitational lensing, gravitational waves, dark matter, compact objects, exoplanet systems, the Hubble constant, compact objects and certainly the history and structure of our Solar System and our Milky Way. I will also present the only astrometry-dedicated flying space mission, ESA/Gaia, and new proposed astrometry-dedicated concepts as Theia, GaiaNIR and Jasmine. In particular, I will comment on some technological drivers and requirements to make these exciting concepts a reality, transforming micro-arcsecond Astrometry into routine and allowing us to cross to sub-micro-arcsecond regimes.