2018/04/02 by K. M. Pontoppidan, Edwin A. Bergin, Pontoppidan, Klaus M. +33
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1804.00743
openalex publication_date 2018/04/02 · openalex created_date 2022/08/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
At a time when ALMA produces spectacular high resolution images of gas and\ndust in circumstellar disks, the next observational frontier in our\nunderstanding of planet formation and the chemistry of planet-forming material\nmay be found in the mid- to far-infrared wavelength range. A large, actively\ncooled far-infrared telescope in space will offer enormous spectroscopic\nsensitivity improvements of 3-4 orders of magnitude, making it possible to\nuniquely survey certain fundamental properties of planet formation.\nSpecifically, the Origins Space Telescope (OST), a NASA flagship concept to be\nsubmitted to the 2020 decadal survey, will provide a platform that allows\ncomplete surveys of warm and cold water around young stars of all masses and\nacross all evolutionary stages, and to measure their total planet-forming gas\nmass using the ground-state line of HD. While this white paper is formulated in\nthe context of the NASA Origins Space Telescope concept, it can be applied in\ngeneral to inform any future space-based, cold far-infrared observatory.\n