1. Building galaxies, stars, planets and the ingredients for life between the stars. The science behind the European Ultraviolet-Visible Observatory
- Author
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Ana I. Gómez de Castro, Thierry Appourchaux, Martin A. Barstow, Mathieu Barthelemy, Frederic Baudin, Stefano Benetti, Pere Blay, Noah Brosch, Emma Bunce, Domitilla de Martino, Jean-Michel Deharveng, Roger Ferlet, Kevin France, Miriam García, Boris Gänsicke, Cecile Gry, Lynne Hillenbrand, Eric Josselin, Carolina Kehrig, Laurent Lamy, Jon Lapington, Alain Lecavelier des Etangs, Frank LePetit, Javier López-Santiago, Bruno Milliard, Richard Monier, Giampiero Naletto, Yael Nazé, Coralie Neiner, Jonathan Nichols, Marina Orio, Isabella Pagano, Céline Peroux, Gregor Rauw, Steven Shore, Marco Spaans, Gagik Tovmassian, Asif ud-Doula, José Vilchez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid = Complutense University of Madrid [Madrid] (UCM), Institut d'astrophysique spatiale (IAS), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG ), Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), The Wise Observatory and The Raymond & Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University [Tel Aviv], Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (IAP), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy [Boulder] (CASA), University of Colorado [Boulder], Caltech Department of Astronomy [Pasadena], California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Groupe de Recherche en Astronomie et Astrophysique du Languedoc (GRAAL), Université Montpellier 2 - Sciences et Techniques (UM2)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC), Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (CREST), Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] (ENSAI)-École polytechnique (X)-École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique (ENSAE Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centro di Ateneo di Studi e Attività Spaziali 'Giuseppe Colombo' (CISAS), Universita degli Studi di Padova, Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique [Liège], Université de Liège, Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Penn State System, Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Tel Aviv University (TAU), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Università degli Studi di Padova = University of Padua (Unipd), and Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
- Subjects
Solar System ,7. Clean energy ,Ultraviolet: solar system ,Astrobiology ,Instrumentation: telescopes ,Observatory ,Planet ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Ultraviolet: general ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,Physics ,[PHYS]Physics [physics] ,Ultraviolet: ISM ,Planetary habitability ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Planetary system ,Exoplanet ,Galaxy ,Ultraviolet: stars ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,Ultraviolet: galaxies ,Extraterrestrial life ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,[PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] ,Instrumentation: miscellaneous - Abstract
This contribution gathers the contents of the white paper submitted by the UV community to the Call issued by the European Space Agency in March 2013, for the definition of the L2 and L3 missions in the ESA science program. We outlined the key science that a large UV facility would make possible and the instrumentation to be implemented. The growth of luminous structures and the building blocks of life in the Universe began as primordial gas was processed in stars and mixed at galactic scales. The mechanisms responsible for this development are not well-understood and have changed over the intervening 13 billion years. To follow the evolution of matter over cosmic time, it is necessary to study the strongest (resonance) transitions of the most abundant species in the Universe. Most of them are in the ultraviolet (UV; 950 Å–3000 Å) spectral range that is unobservable from the ground. A versatile space observatory with UV sensitivity a factor of 50–100 greater than existing facilities will revolutionize our understanding of the Universe. Habitable planets grow in protostellar discs under ultraviolet irradiation, a by-product of the star-disk interaction that drives the physical and chemical evolution of discs and young planetary systems. The electronic transitions of the most abundant molecules are pumped by this UV field, providing unique diagnostics of the planet-forming environment that cannot be accessed from the ground. Earth’s atmosphere is in constant interaction with the interplanetary medium and the solar UV radiation field. A 50–100 times improvement in sensitivity would enable the observation of the key atmospheric ingredients of Earth-like exoplanets (carbon, oxygen, ozone), provide crucial input for models of biologically active worlds outside the solar system, and provide the phenomenological baseline to understand the Earth atmosphere in context.
- Published
- 2014
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