Orbiting Astronomical Satellite for Investigating Stellar Systems (OASIS): “Following water from galaxies, through protostellar systems, to oceans”
Paper in proceeding, 2021
Orbiting Astronomical Satellite for Investigating Stellar Systems (OASIS) is a space-based, MIDEX-class mission concept that employs a 17-meter diameter inflatable aperture with cryogenic heterodyne receivers, enabling high sensitivity and high spectral resolution (resolving power >106) observations at terahertz frequencies. OASIS science is targeting submillimeter and far-infrared transitions of H2O and its isotopologues, as well as deuterated molecular hydrogen (HD) and other molecular species from 660 to 80 µm, which are inaccessible to ground-based telescopes due to the opacity of Earth’s atmosphere. OASIS will have >20x the collecting area and ~5x the angular resolution of Herschel, and it complements the shorter wavelength capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope. With its large collecting area and suite of terahertz heterodyne receivers, OASIS will have the sensitivity to follow the water trail from galaxies to oceans, as well as directly measure gas mass in a wide variety of astrophysical objects from observations of the ground-state HD line. OASIS will operate in a Sun-Earth L1 halo orbit that enables observations of large numbers of galaxies, protoplanetary systems, and solar system objects during the course of its 1-year baseline mission. OASIS embraces an overarching science theme of “following water from galaxies, through protostellar systems, to oceans.” This theme resonates with the NASA Astrophysics Roadmap and the 2010 Astrophysics Decadal Survey, and it is also highly complementary to the proposed Origins Space Telescope’s objectives.
Water
Comets
Moons
HD
Submillimeter spectroscopy
Terahertz astronomy
Proto-planetary disks
Far-infrared spectroscopy
Planets
Heterodyne spectroscopy
Galaxies
Author
Christopher K. Walker
University of Arizona
Gordon Chin
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Susanne Aalto
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
Carrie M. Anderson
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
J. Arenberg
Northrop Grumman corporation
C. Battersby
University of Connecticut
E. A. Bergin
University of Michigan
Jenny Bergner
University of Chicago
NASA Hubble Fellowship Program
N. Biver
Paris Observatory
Gordon L. Bjoraker
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
John Carr
University of Maryland
T. Cavalie
University of Bordeaux
Paris Observatory
Elvire de Beck
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
Michael A. DiSanti
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
P. Hartogh
Max Planck Society
L. K. Hunt
Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
Daewook Kim
University of Arizona
Craig Kulesa
University of Arizona
David Leisawitz
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Joan Najita
NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab)
D. Rigopoulou
University of Oxford
Kamber Schwarz
University of Arizona
NASA Hubble Fellowship Program
Yancy Shirly
University of Arizona
Antony A. Stark
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Yuzuru Takashima
University of Arizona
Xander Tielens
Leiden University
Serena Viti
University College London (UCL)
Leiden University
D. J. Wilner
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Edward Wollack
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Erick Young
Universities Space Research Association
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
0277786X (ISSN) 1996756X (eISSN)
Vol. 11820 118200O9781510644786 (ISBN)
Astronomical Optics: Design, Manufacture, and Test of Space and Ground Systems III 2021
San Diego, USA,
San Diego, USA,
Subject Categories
Aerospace Engineering
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
DOI
10.1117/12.2594847