Orbiting Astronomical Satellite for Investigating Stellar Systems (OASIS): “Following water from galaxies, through protostellar systems, to oceans”
Paper i 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.

Comets

Proto-planetary disks

HD

Far-infrared spectroscopy

Submillimeter spectroscopy

Heterodyne spectroscopy

Planets

Water

Terahertz astronomy

Moons

Galaxies

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Publicerad i

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

0277786X (ISSN) 1996756X (eISSN)

Vol. 11820 art. nr 118200O
9781510644786 (ISBN)

Konferens

Astronomical Optics: Design, Manufacture, and Test of Space and Ground Systems III 2021
San Diego, USA, 2021-07-31 - 2021-08-04

Kategorisering

Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2011)

Rymd- och flygteknik

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

Atom- och molekylfysik och optik

Identifikatorer

DOI

10.1117/12.2594847

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Senast uppdaterat

2025-03-10