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 118200O
9781510644786 (ISBN)

Astronomical Optics: Design, Manufacture, and Test of Space and Ground Systems III 2021
San Diego, USA,

Subject Categories

Aerospace Engineering

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

DOI

10.1117/12.2594847

More information

Latest update

12/26/2022