Exploration of the Ice Giant Systems: A White Paper for NASA's Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032
Chloe Beddingfield, Cheng Li, Sushil Atreya, Patricia Beauchamp, Ian Cohen, Jonathan Fortney, Heidi Hammel, Matthew Hedman, Mark Hofstadter, Abigail Rymer, Paul… 展开作者
Chloe Beddingfield, Cheng Li, Sushil Atreya, Patricia Beauchamp, Ian Cohen, Jonathan Fortney, Heidi Hammel, Matthew Hedman, Mark Hofstadter, Abigail Rymer, Paul Schenk, Mark Showalter
Ice giants are the only unexplored class of planet in our Solar System. Much that we currently know about these systems challenges our understanding of how planets, rings, satellites, and magnetospheres form and evolve. We assert that an ice giant Flagship mission with an atmospheric probe should be a priority for the decade 2023-2032.
Solar system exploration provides numerous possibilities for advancing technosignature science. The search for life in the solar system includes missions designed to search for evidence of biosignatures on other planetary bodies, but many missions could also attempt to search for and constrain the presence of technology within the solar system. Technosignatures and biosignatures represent complementary approaches toward searching for evidence of life in our solar neighborhood, and beyond. This report summarizes the potential technosignature opportunities within ongoing solar system exploration…
NASA Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration Strategy (NASA-DARES 2025) White Paper -- Habitable Worlds Observatory Living Worlds Science Cases: Research Gaps and Needs
"Traditional SETI is not part of astrobiology" declares the NASA Astrobiology Strategy 2015 document. This is incorrect. In this white paper, I argue that SETI$-$seen as the search for technosignatures characteristic of the future of life in the universe$-$is a neglected complement to the search for biosignatures in NASA's astrobiology portfolio, and may offer the more fruitful avenue to the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe, as recognized by the Astro2010 decadal survey. I rebut six erroneous perceptions that may contribute to the field's absence from NASA's astrobiology strategy, a…
The search for life beyond the Solar System-a major part of the Planetary Systems thematic area of the Astro2020 Decadal process-includes the search for technological life. Although financial support for such searches at the NSF and NASA and in past decadal surveys has been weak to nonexistent, recent advances in astrobiology, astrophysics, and advances in technical capability make searches for technosignatures a compelling theme for 2020-2030 and beyond.
A confluence of scientific, financial, and political factors imply that launching two simpler, more narrowly defined dark-energy/microlensing satellites will lead to faster, cheaper, better (and more secure) science than the present EUCLID and WFIRST designs. The two satellites, one led by ESA and the other by NASA, would be explicitly designed to perform complementary functions of a single, dual-satellite dark-energy/microlensing ``mission''. One would be a purely optical wide-field camera, with large format and small pixels, optimized for weak-lensing, which because of its simple design, cou…
This is a community white paper submitted to the Decadal Survey in Planetary Science and Astrobiology, reflecting the views of the NASA Astrobiology Program's Research Coordination Network for Ocean Worlds (NOW). We recommend the establishment of a dedicated Ocean Worlds Exploration Program within NASA to provide sustained funding support for the science, engineering, research, development, and mission planning needed to implement a multi-decadal, multi-mission program to explore Ocean Worlds for life and understand the conditions for habitability. The two new critical flagship missions within…
We advocate for a mission concept study for a space telescope dedicated to solar system science in Earth orbit. Such a study was recommended by the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS) report "Getting Ready for the Next Planetary Science Decadal Survey." The Mid-Decadal Review also recommended NASA to assess the role and value of space telescopes for planetary science. The need for high-resolution, UV-Visible capabilities is especially acute for planetary science with the impending end of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST); however, NASA has not funded a planetary telescope con…
[Abridged] The Study Analysis Group 8 of the NASA Exoplanet Analysis Group was convened to assess the current capabilities and the future potential of the precise radial velocity (PRV) method to advance the NASA goal to "search for planetary bodies and Earth-like planets in orbit around other stars.: (U.S. National Space Policy, June 28, 2010). PRVs complement other exoplanet detection methods, for example offering a direct path to obtaining the bulk density and thus the structure and composition of transiting exoplanets. Our analysis builds upon previous community input, including the ExoPlan…
Astrophysics facilities have been of tremendous importance for planetary science. The flagship space observatory Hubble Space Telescope has produced ground-breaking Solar System science, but when launched it did not even have the capability to track moving targets. The next astrophysics flagship mission, the James Webb Space Telescope, included Solar System scientists in its science team from the earliest days, with the result that Webb will launch with a diverse program and capabilities for Solar System exploration. The New Great Observatories, as well as future ground-based facilities, offer…
The search of life in the Universe is a fundamental problem of astrobiology and a major priority for NASA. A key area of major progress since the NASA Astrobiology Strategy 2015 (NAS15) has been a shift from the exoplanet discovery phase to a phase of characterization and modeling of the physics and chemistry of exoplanetary atmospheres, and the development of observational strategies for the search for life in the Universe by combining expertise from four NASA science disciplines including heliophysics, astrophysics, planetary science and Earth science. The NASA Nexus for Exoplanetary System …
In this paper we showcase the importance of understanding and measuring interdisciplinarity and other -disciplinarity concepts for all scientists, the role social sciences have historically played in NASA research and missions, the sparsity of social science interdisciplinarity in space and planetary sciences, including astronomy and astrophysics, while there is an imperative necessity for it, and the example of interdisciplinarity between social sciences and astrobiology. Ultimately we give voice to the scientists across all fields with respect to their needs, aspirations and experiences in t…
In support of the Astrobiology Science Strategy, this whitepaper outlines some key technology challenges pertaining to the remote search for life in exoplanetary systems. Finding evidence for life on rocky planets outside of our solar system requires new technical capabilities for the key measurements of spectral signatures of biosignature gases, and of planetary mass measurement. Spectra of Earth-like planets can be directly measured in reflected stellar light in the visible band or near-infrared using a factor 1e-10 starlight suppression with occulters, either internal (coronagraph) or exter…
This is a white paper submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. The deep atmosphere of Venus is largely unexplored and yet may harbor clues to the evolutionary pathways for a major silicate planet with implications across the solar system and beyond. In situ data is needed to resolve significant open questions related to the evolution and present-state of Venus, including questions of Venus' possibly early habitability and current volcanic outgassing. Deep atmosphere "probe-based" in situ missions carrying analytical suites of instruments are now implementable in the …
This is a joint summary of the reports from the three Astrophysics Program Analysis Groups (PAGs) in response to the "Planning for the 2020 Decadal Survey" charge given by the Astrophysics Division Director Paul Hertz. This joint executive summary contains points of consensus across all three PAGs. Additional findings specific to the individual PAGs are reported separately in the individual reports. The PAGs concur that all four large mission concepts identified in the white paper as candidates for maturation prior to the 2020 Decadal Survey should be studied in detail. These include the Far-I…
Understanding the origin and evolution of the lunar volatile system is not only compelling lunar science, but also fundamental Solar System science. This white paper (submitted to the US National Academies' Decadal Survey in Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032) summarizes recent advances in our understanding of lunar volatiles, identifies outstanding questions for the next decade, and discusses key steps required to address these questions.
The Large UV/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) mission is one of four Decadal Survey Mission Concepts studied by NASA in preparation for the US National Academies' Astro2020 Decadal Survey. This observatory has the major goal of characterizing a wide range of exoplanets, including those that might be habitable -- or even inhabited. It would simultaneously enable a great leap forward in a broad range of astrophysics -- from the epoch of reionization, through galaxy formation and evolution, to star and planet formation. Powerful remote sensing observations of Solar System bodies will also be po…
As an end-member of terrestrial planet formation, Mercury holds unique clues about the original distribution of elements in the earliest stages of solar system development and how planets and exoplanets form and evolve in close proximity to their host stars. This Mercury Lander mission concept enables in situ surface measurements that address several fundamental science questions raised by MESSENGER's pioneering exploration of Mercury. Such measurements are needed to understand Mercury's unique mineralogy and geochemistry; to characterize the proportionally massive core's structure; to measure…
The Large UV/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) mission is one of four Decadal Survey Mission Concepts studied by NASA in preparation for the US National Academies' Astro2020 Decadal Survey. This observatory has the major goal of characterizing a wide range of exoplanets, including those that might be habitable -- or even inhabited. It would simultaneously enable a great leap forward in a broad range of astrophysics -- from the epoch of reionization, through galaxy formation and evolution, to star and planet formation. Powerful remote sensing observations of Solar System bodies will also be po…
White Paper on Phototrophic Biosignatures: Research Priorities for the Search for Life on Other Worlds
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies（NASA 戈达德太空研究所）；University of Wisconsin, Madison（威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校）；Arizona State University（亚利桑那州立大学）；Washington University in St. Louis（圣路易斯华盛顿大学）；NASA Ames Research Center（NASA 艾姆斯研究中心）；University of Alabama（阿拉巴马大学）；Technion⎯Israel Institute of Technology（以色列理工学院）；Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；University of California, Riverside（加州大学河滨分校）；North Carolina State University（北卡罗来纳州立大学）；National Astronomical Observatory of Japan（日本国立天文台）；Loyola University Chicago（芝加哥洛约拉大学）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Ibaraki University（茨城大学）；Purdue University（普渡大学）；University of Padova（帕多瓦大学）
At a time when ALMA produces spectacular high resolution images of gas and dust in circumstellar disks, the next observational frontier in our understanding of planet formation and the chemistry of planet-forming material may be found in the mid- to far-infrared wavelength range. A large, actively cooled far-infrared telescope in space will offer enormous spectroscopic sensitivity improvements of 3-4 orders of magnitude, making it possible to uniquely survey certain fundamental properties of planet formation. Specifically, the Origins Space Telescope (OST), a NASA flagship concept to be submit…
This is a white paper submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. The Exoplanets in our Backyard meeting was born out of a recognition of the value and potential of interdisciplinary, cross-divisional exoplanet and solar system research, and to encourage and grow the community of researchers working at this intersection. This first-ever inter-assessment group (AG) meeting (organized by members of the Venus Exploration, Outer Planets, and Exoplanet AGs, or VEXAG, OPAG, and ExoPAG, respectively), successfully brought together solar system and exoplanetary scientists from …
Ad Astra White Paper: A Pitch for the Next 25 Years of NASA's Physics of the Cosmos Program
Louisiana State University（路易斯安那州立大学）；Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC), CSIC-Universitat de València（瓦伦西亚大学与西班牙国家研究委员会联合粒子物理研究所）；University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill（北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校）；NASA Goddard Space Flight Center（美国宇航局戈达德太空飞行中心）；Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室）；University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校）
This white paper, written in support of NASA's 2023-2032 Planetary Decadal Survey, outlines 10 major questions that focus on the origin, evolution, and current processes that shape the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune. Prioritizing these questions over the next decade will greatly improve our understanding of this unique class of planets, which have remained largely unexplored since the Voyager flybys. Studying the atmospheres of the Ice Giants will greatly inform our understanding of the origin and evolution of the solar system as a whole, in addition to the growing number of exoplanetary sy…
WFIRST is the highest priority space mission of the Decadal review, however, it is unlikely to begin in this decade primarily due to a anticipated NASA budget that is unlikely to have sufficient resources to fund such a mission. For this reason we present a lower cost mission that accomplishes all of the WFIRST science as described in the Design Reference Mission 1 with a probe class design. This is effort is motivated by a desire to begin WFIRST in a timely manner and within a budget that can fit within the assets available to NASA on a realistic basis. The design utilizes dichroics to form f…
This white paper advocates for the inclusion of small, captured Outer Solar system objects, found in the Ice Giant region in the next Decadal Survey. These objects include the Trojans and Irregular satellite populations of Uranus and Neptune. The captured small bodies provide vital clues as to the formation of our Solar system. They have unique dynamical situations, which any model of Solar system formation needs to explain. The major issue is that so few of these objects have been discovered, with very little information known about them. The purpose of this document is to prioritize further …
In December 2010, NASA created a Science Definition Team (SDT) for WFIRST, the Wide Field Infra-Red Survey Telescope, recommended by the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey as the highest priority for a large space mission. The SDT was chartered to work with the WFIRST Project Office at GSFC and the Program Office at JPL to produce a Design Reference Mission (DRM) for WFIRST. This paper describes an Interim DRM. The DRM will be completed in 2012.
Science funding agencies (NASA, DOE, and NSF), the science community, and the US taxpayer have all benefited enormously from the several-decade series of National Academies Decadal Surveys. These Surveys are one of the primary means whereby these agencies may align multi-year strategic priorities and funding to guide the scientific community. They comprise highly regarded subject matter experts whose goal is to develop a set of science and program priorities that are recommended for major investments in the subsequent 10+ years. They do this using both their own professional knowledge and by s…
The Astro2010 Decadal Survey recommended a Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) as its top priority for a new large space mission. As conceived by the decadal survey, WFIRST would carry out a dark energy science program, a microlensing program to determine the demographics of exoplanets, and a general observing program utilizing its ultra wide field. In October 2012, NASA chartered a Science Definition Team (SDT) to produce, in collaboration with the WFIRST Project Office at GSFC and the Program Office at JPL, a Design Reference Mission (DRM) for an implementation of WFIRST using one …
EarthFinder is a Probe Mission concept selected for study by NASA for input to the 2020 astronomy decadal survey. This study is currently active and a final white paper report is due to NASA at the end of calendar 2018. We are tasked with evaluating the scientific rationale for obtaining precise radial velocity (PRV) measurements in space, which is a two-part inquiry: What can be gained from going to space? What can't be done form the ground? These two questions flow down to these specific tasks for our study - Identify the velocity limit, if any, introduced from micro- and macro-telluric abso…
The Moon is a unique platform for fundamental astrophysical measurements of gravitation, the Sun, and the Universe. Lacking a permanent ionosphere and, on the farside, shielded from terrestrial radio emissions, a radio telescope on the Moon will be an unparalleled heliospheric and astrophysical observatory. Crucial stages in particle acceleration near the Sun can be imaged and tracked. The evolution of the Universe before and during the formation of the first stars will be traced, yielding high precision cosmological constraints. Lunar Laser Ranging of the Earth-Moon distance provides extremel…
This paper describes the beginning of the Far-Infrared Surveyor mission study for NASA's Astrophysics Decadal 2020. We describe the scope of the study, and the open process approach of the Science and Technology Definition Team. We are currently developing the science cases and provide some preliminary highlights here. We note key areas for technological innovation and improvements necessary to make a Far-Infrared Surveyor mission a reality.
In December 2010, NASA created a Science Definition Team (SDT) for WFIRST, the Wide Field Infra-Red Survey Telescope, recommended by the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey as the highest priority for a large space mission. The SDT was chartered to work with the WFIRST Project Office at GSFC and the Program Office at JPL to produce a Design Reference Mission (DRM) for WFIRST. Part of the original charge was to produce an interim design reference mission by mid-2011. That document was delivered to NASA and widely circulated within the astronomical community. In late 2011 the Astrophysics Division augment…
This report describes the 2014 study by the Science Definition Team (SDT) of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission. It is a space observatory that will address the most compelling scientific problems in dark energy, exoplanets and general astrophysics using a 2.4-m telescope with a wide-field infrared instrument and an optical coronagraph. The Astro2010 Decadal Survey recommended a Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope as its top priority for a new large space mission. As conceived by the decadal survey, WFIRST would carry out a dark energy science program, a microlensing pr…
Habitability has been generally defined as the capability of an environment to support life. Ecologists have been using Habitat Suitability Models (HSMs) for more than four decades to study the habitability of Earth from local to global scales. Astrobiologists have been proposing different habitability models for some time, with little integration and consistency between them and different in function to those used by ecologists. In this white paper, we suggest a mass-energy habitability model as an example of how to adapt and expand the models used by ecologists to the astrobiology field. We …
On the synergetic use of Ariel and JWST for exoplanet atmospheric science
Kapteyn Institute University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学卡普坦研究所）；Université Paris-Saclay Université Paris Cité CEA CNRS AIM（巴黎萨克雷大学 巴黎西岱大学 CEA CNRS AIM）；King’s College London（伦敦国王学院）；LIRA Observatoire de Paris Université PSL CNRS Sorbonne Université Univ. Paris Cité Sorbonne Paris Cité（巴黎天文台 PSL大学 CNRS 索邦大学 巴黎西岱大学）；Department of Physics McGill University（麦吉尔大学物理系）；Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences McGill University（麦吉尔大学地球与行星科学系）；University of Valencia（瓦伦西亚大学）；INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri（意大利国家天体物理研究所阿切特里天文台）；Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）；SRON Space Research Organisation Netherlands（荷兰空间研究组织）；Astrobiology Center（天体生物学中心）；National Astronomical Observatory of Japan（日本国立天文台）
The Origins Space Telescope (Origins) is one of four science and technology definition studies selected by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in preparation of the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal survey in the US. Origins will trace the history of our origins from the time dust and heavy elements permanently altered the cosmic landscape to present-day life. It is designed to answer three major science questions: How do galaxies form stars, make metals, and grow their central supermassive black holes from reionization? How do the conditions for habitability develop dur…
Exoplanets mass measurements will be a critical next step to assess the habitability of Earth-like planets: a key aspect of the 2020 vision in the previous decadal survey and also central to NASA's strategic priorities. Precision astrometry delivers measurement of exoplanet masses, allowing discrimination of rocky planets from water worlds and enabling much better modeling of their atmosphere improving species retrieval from spectroscopy. The scientific potential of astrometry will be enormous. The intrinsic astrophysical noise floor set by star spots and stellar surface activity is about a fa…
We outline a flagship-class mission concept focused on studying Titan as a global system, with particular emphasis on the polar regions. Investigating Titan from the unique standpoint of a polar orbit would enable comprehensive global maps to uncover the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere, and the topography and geophysical environment of the surface and subsurface. The mission includes two key elements: (1) an orbiter spacecraft, which also acts as a data relay, and (2) one or more small probes to directly investigate Titan's seas and make the first direct measurements of their liquid co…
The Astro2010 Decadal Survey recommended a Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) as its top priority for a new large space mission. The report of the WFIRST-AFTA Science Definition Team (SDT) presents a Design Reference Mission for WFIRST that employs one of the 2.4-m, Hubble-quality mirror assemblies recently made available to NASA. The 2.4-m primary mirror enables a mission with greater sensitivity and higher angular resolution than the smaller aperture designs previously considered for WFIRST, increasing both the science return of the primary surveys and the capabilities of WFIRST a…
Early Exploration of the Scientific Discovery Space for the Habitable Worlds Observatory
University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Harvard University（哈佛大学）；Univ. Grenoble Alpes（格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）；NASA Goddard Space Flight Center（美国宇航局戈达德太空飞行中心）；Universidade Federal do Ceará（塞阿拉联邦大学）；University of Leicester（莱斯特大学）；The Open University（开放大学）；NASA Ames Research Center（美国宇航局艾姆斯研究中心）；SETI Institute（SETI研究所）；Istituto ricerche solari Aldo e Celle Daccó (IRSOL)（Aldo e Celle Daccó太阳研究学院（IRSOL））
