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Coronagraphic imaging of debris disks from a high altitude balloon platform
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Traub, Wesley Mennesson, Bertrand Unwin, Stephen Vasisht, Gautam Stuchlik, David Trauger, John Bryden, Geoffrey Moody, Dwight Roberts Jr., Lewis C. Krist, John Chen, Pin Mawet, Dimitri Stapelfeldt, Karl Guyon, Olivier Hillenbrand, Lynne Brugarolas, Paul Macintosh, Bruce |
| Copyright Year | 2012 |
| Description | Debris disks around nearby stars are tracers of the planet formation process, and they are a key element of our understanding of the formation and evolution of extrasolar planetary systems. With multi-color images of a significant number of disks, we can probe important questions: can we learn about planetary system evolution; what materials are the disks made of; and can they reveal the presence of planets? Most disks are known to exist only through their infrared flux excesses as measured by the Spitzer Space Telescope, and through images measaured by Herschel. The brightest, most extended disks have been imaged with HST, and a few, such as Fomalhaut, can be observed using ground-based telescopes. But the number of good images is still very small, and there are none of disks with densities as low as the disk associated with the asteroid belt and Edgeworth-Kuiper belt in our own Solar System. Direct imaging of disks is major observational challenge, demanding high angular resolution and extremely high dynamic range close to the parent star. The ultimate experiment requires a space-based platform, but demonstrating much of the needed technology, mitigating the technical risks of a space-based coronagraph, and performing valuable measurements of circumstellar debris disks, can be done from a high-altitude balloon platform. In this paper we present a balloon-borne telescope concept based on the Zodiac II design that could undertake compelling studies of a sample of debris disks. |
| File Size | 4707629 |
| Page Count | 14 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20120015546 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t89h0nd7k |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2012-07-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Astrophysics Surveys Angular Resolution Space Debris Extrasolar Planets Planetary Evolution High Altitude Balloons Telescopes Imaging Techniques Kuiper Belt Coronagraphs Accretion Disks Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports Server (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
