2010/02/15 by J. R. Goicoechea, B. Swinyard, Goicoechea, J. R. +1
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 #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1002.2861
Pathways towards Habitable Planets 2009, Eds. Dawn Gelino, Ignasi Ribas, Vincent Coude du Foresto
arxiv created 2010/02/15 · openalex publication_date 2010/02/15 · arxiv updated 2010/02/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The far-infrared (far-IR) spectral window plays host to a wide range of spectroscopic diagnostics with which to study planetary disk systems and exoplanets at wavelengths completely blocked by the Earth atmosphere. These include the thermal emission of dusty belts in debris disks, the water ice features in the "snow lines" of protoplanetary disks, as well as many key chemical species (O, OH, H2O, NH3, HD, etc). These tracers play a critical diagnostic role in a number of key areas including the early stages of planet formation and potentially, exoplanets. The proposed Japanese-led IR space telescope SPICA, with its 3m-class cooled mirror (~5 K) will be the next step in sensitivity after ESA's Herschel Space Observatory (successfully launched in May 2009). SPICA is a candidate "M-mission" in ESA's Cosmic Vision~2015-2025 process. We summarize the science possibilities of SAFARI: a far-IR imaging-spectrometer (covering the ~34-210um band) that is one of a suite of instruments for SPICA.