A 20 m wide-field diffraction-limited telescope
A 20 m space telescope is described with an unvignetted 1° field of view—a hundred times larger in area than fields of existing space telescopes. Its diffraction-limited images are a hundred times sharper than from wide-field ground-based telescopes and extend over much if not all the field, 40 arcm...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsta.2020.0141 2024-06-02T08:14:35+00:00 A 20 m wide-field diffraction-limited telescope Eads, Ryker W. Angel, J. Roger P. 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2020.0141 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2020.0141 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2020.0141 en eng The Royal Society http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 379, issue 2188 ISSN 1364-503X 1471-2962 journal-article 2020 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2020.0141 2024-05-07T14:16:55Z A 20 m space telescope is described with an unvignetted 1° field of view—a hundred times larger in area than fields of existing space telescopes. Its diffraction-limited images are a hundred times sharper than from wide-field ground-based telescopes and extend over much if not all the field, 40 arcmin diameter at 500 nm wavelength, for example. The optical system yielding a 1°, 1.36 m diameter image at f/3.9 has relatively small central obscuration, 9% by area on axis, and is fully baffled. Several carousel-mounted instruments can each access directly the full image. The initial instrument complement includes a 400 gigapixel silicon imager with 2 µm pixels (0.005 arcsec), and a 60 gigapixel HgCdTe imager with 5 µm pixels (0.012 arcsec). A multi-object spectrograph with 10 000 fibres will allow spectroscopy with 0.02 arcsec resolution. Direct imaging and spectroscopy of exoplanets can take advantage of the un-aberrated, on-axis image (5 nm RMS wavefront error). While this telescope could be built for operation in free space, a site accessible to a human outpost at the Moon's south pole would be advantageous, for assembly and repairs. The lunar site would allow also for the installation of new instruments to keep up with evolving scientific priorities and advancing technology. Cooling to less than 100E K would be achieved with a surrounding cylindrical thermal shield. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades (part 1)’. Article in Journal/Newspaper South pole The Royal Society South Pole Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 379 2188 20200141 |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
A 20 m space telescope is described with an unvignetted 1° field of view—a hundred times larger in area than fields of existing space telescopes. Its diffraction-limited images are a hundred times sharper than from wide-field ground-based telescopes and extend over much if not all the field, 40 arcmin diameter at 500 nm wavelength, for example. The optical system yielding a 1°, 1.36 m diameter image at f/3.9 has relatively small central obscuration, 9% by area on axis, and is fully baffled. Several carousel-mounted instruments can each access directly the full image. The initial instrument complement includes a 400 gigapixel silicon imager with 2 µm pixels (0.005 arcsec), and a 60 gigapixel HgCdTe imager with 5 µm pixels (0.012 arcsec). A multi-object spectrograph with 10 000 fibres will allow spectroscopy with 0.02 arcsec resolution. Direct imaging and spectroscopy of exoplanets can take advantage of the un-aberrated, on-axis image (5 nm RMS wavefront error). While this telescope could be built for operation in free space, a site accessible to a human outpost at the Moon's south pole would be advantageous, for assembly and repairs. The lunar site would allow also for the installation of new instruments to keep up with evolving scientific priorities and advancing technology. Cooling to less than 100E K would be achieved with a surrounding cylindrical thermal shield. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades (part 1)’. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Eads, Ryker W. Angel, J. Roger P. |
spellingShingle |
Eads, Ryker W. Angel, J. Roger P. A 20 m wide-field diffraction-limited telescope |
author_facet |
Eads, Ryker W. Angel, J. Roger P. |
author_sort |
Eads, Ryker W. |
title |
A 20 m wide-field diffraction-limited telescope |
title_short |
A 20 m wide-field diffraction-limited telescope |
title_full |
A 20 m wide-field diffraction-limited telescope |
title_fullStr |
A 20 m wide-field diffraction-limited telescope |
title_full_unstemmed |
A 20 m wide-field diffraction-limited telescope |
title_sort |
20 m wide-field diffraction-limited telescope |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2020.0141 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2020.0141 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2020.0141 |
geographic |
South Pole |
geographic_facet |
South Pole |
genre |
South pole |
genre_facet |
South pole |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 379, issue 2188 ISSN 1364-503X 1471-2962 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2020.0141 |
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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
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379 |
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2188 |
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20200141 |
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