Astrometric Interferometry

Abstract

Astrometry is a powerful technique in astrophysics to measure three-dimensional positions of stars and other astrophysical objects, including exoplanets and the gravitational influence they have on each other. Interferometric astrometry is presented here as just one in a suite of powerful astrometric techniques, which include space-based, seeing-limited and wide-angle adaptive optics techniques. Fundamental limits are discussed, demonstrating that even ground-based techniques have the capability for astrometry at the single micro-arcsecond level, should sufficiently sophisticated instrumentation be constructed for both the current generation of single telescopes and long-baseline optical interferometers.