Experimental Astronomy ( IF 3 ) Pub Date : 2021-04-18 , DOI: 10.1007/s10686-021-09732-w Knud Jahnke , Oliver Krause , Hans-Walter Rix , Frédéric Courbin , Adriano Fontana , Catherine Heymans , Nicolas Martin , Pascal Oesch , Andy Taylor , B. Scott Gaudi , Alina Kiessling , Bertrand Mennesson , Sara Seager , Daniel Stern , Keith Warfield
In the early 2030s, after the end of operations for the epochal Hubble Space Telescope and the long-anticipated James Webb Space Telescope, astrophysics will lose access to a general purpose high-spatial resolution space observatory to cover the UV–optical–NIR wavelength range with a variety of imaging bandpasses and high-multiplexing mid-resolution spectroscopy. This will greatly impact astrophysical “discovery space” at visible wavelengths, in stark contrast to progress at most other wavelengths enabled by groundbreaking new facilities between 2010 and 2030. This capability gap will foreseeably limit progress in a number of fundamental research directions anticipated to be pressing in the 2030’s and beyond such as:
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What are the histories of star formation and cosmic element production in nearby galaxies?
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What can we learn about the nature of dark matter from dwarf galaxies?
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What is the local value of the Hubble Constant?
A multi-purpose optical–NIR imaging and multiplexed spectroscopy Workhorse Camera (HWC) onboard NASA’s 4m-class Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) space mission would provide access to these required data. HabEx is currently under study by NASA for the US Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020, and if selected would launch around 2035. Aside from its direct imaging of Earth-like exoplanets, it will have a general-observatory complement of instrumentation. The versatile Workhorse Camera will provide imaging and R\(\sim \)1000 spectroscopy from 370nm to 1800nm, diffraction-limited over the whole wavelength range, with simultaneous observations of the visible and NIR. Spectroscopic multiplexing will be achieved through microshutter arrays. All necessary HWC technology is already at Technology Readiness Level 5, hence technological risks are low. HWC has a rough-order-of-magnitude (ROM) cost of 300 M€, and could be European-funded within the cost envelope of an ESA S-class mission in the Voyage 2050 program, with matching funds by national funding agencies to construct HWC by a European instrument consortium. This White Paper is intended to put a European HabEx Workhorse Camera into ESA’s considerations. If ESA shares the wide interest and if HabEx were to be selected by NASA, there would be ample time to identify interested institutes for a European instrument consortium, including MPIA, to design, finance, and build the HabEx Workhorse Camera.
中文翻译:
在HST和JWST之后需要多功能的光学NIR太空设施
在2030年代初,时代性的哈勃太空望远镜和人们期待已久的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜的运行结束后,天体物理学将无法使用通用的高空间分辨率太空天文台来覆盖UV-光学-NIR波长范围具有各种成像带通和高复用中分辨率光谱。这将对可见光波长的天体物理“发现空间”产生巨大影响,这与2010年至2030年间破土动工的新设施在其他大多数波长上取得的进展形成鲜明对比。这种能力差距将可预见地限制了预计将紧迫的许多基础研究方向的进展。在2030年代及以后,例如:
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邻近星系中恒星形成和宇宙元素产生的历史是什么?
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我们可以从矮星系了解暗物质的本质吗?
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哈勃常数的局部值是多少?
NASA的4m级可居住系外行星天文台(HabEx)太空任务上的多功能光学NIR成像和多光谱光谱工作相机(HWC)将提供对这些所需数据的访问。美国国家航空航天局目前正在对HabEx进行2020年美国天文学和天体物理学十年调查,如果选择该卫星,它将在2035年左右发射。除了对像地球系外行星的直接成像外,它还将具有通用的天文观测仪器。多用途的主力摄像头将提供成像和R \(\ sim \)从370nm到1800nm的1000光谱,在整个波长范围内受衍射限制,同时观察可见光和NIR。光谱多路复用将通过微快门阵列实现。所有必需的HWC技术已经处于技术准备水平5,因此技术风险较低。HWC的造价大致为3亿欧元,可以在“航行2050”计划的ESA S级任务的费用范围内由欧洲提供资金,国家资助机构也可以提供相应的资金用于由欧洲仪器联盟建造HWC。本白皮书旨在将欧洲HabEx主力相机纳入ESA的考虑范围。如果ESA拥有广泛的兴趣,并且如果NASA将选择HabEx,