B. Scott Gaudi (1), Sara Seager (2), Bertrand Mennesson (3), Alina Kiessling (3), Keith Warfield (3), Gary Kuan (3), Kerri Cahoy (2), John T. Clarke (4), Shawn Domagal-Goldman (5), Lee Feinberg (5), Olivier Guyon (6), Jeremy Kasdin (7), Dimitri Mawet (8), Tyler Robinson (9), Leslie Rogers (10), Paul Scowen (11), Rachel Somerville (12), Karl Stapelfeldt (3), Christopher Stark (13), Daniel Stern (3), Margaret Turnbull (14), Stefan Martin (3), Oscar Alvarez-Salazar (3), Rashied Amini (3), William Arnold (15), Bala Balasubramanian (3), Mike Baysinger (16), Lindsey Blais (3), Thomas Brooks (17), Rob Calvet (3), Velibor Cormarkovic (3), Charlie Cox (18), Rolf Danner (3), Jacqueline Davis (17), Lisa Dorsett (19), Michael Effinger (17), Ron Eng (17), Jay Garcia (16), Jonathan Gaskin (20), Joby Harris (3), et al. (42 additional authors not shown)

(Submitted on 25 Sep 2018)

For the first time in human history, technologies have matured sufficiently to enable a mission capable of discovering and characterizing habitable planets like Earth orbiting sunlike stars other than the Sun. At the same time, such a platform would enable unique science not possible from ground-based facilities. This science is broad and exciting, ranging from new investigations of our own solar system to a full range of astrophysics disciplines. 

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory, or HabEx, is one of four studies currently being undertaken by NASA in preparation for the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey. HabEx has been designed to be the Great Observatory of the 2030s, with community involvement through a competed and funded Guest Observer (GO) program. This interim report describes the HabEx baseline concept, which is a space-based 4-meter diameter telescope mission concept with ultraviolet (UV), optical, and near-infrared (near-IR) imaging and spectroscopy capabilities. 

More information on HabEx can be found at this https URL

Comments: 212 Pages

Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

Cite as: arXiv:1809.09674 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:1809.09674v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)

Submission history

From: Alina Kiessling  

[v1] Tue, 25 Sep 2018 19:24:23 GMT (18508kb)

https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.09674

Astrobiology