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Updated: Jun 18, 2025
11:34
Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
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Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) Science: Planetary and Cometary Atmospheres.
Martin Cordiner1,2, Alexander Thelen3, Thibault Cavalie4,5
1Astrochemistry Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771-0003, USA.
Open Research Europe
|August 5, 2024
Summary
The Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) will advance planetary science by enhancing observations of planets, moons, and comets. This new facility will provide crucial data for understanding planetary formation, habitability, and the origins of life.
Area of Science:
- Planetary Science
- Exoplanetology
- Astrobiology
Background:
- Understanding Solar System formation and evolution is key to exoplanet studies.
- Current (sub)millimeter observations have limitations in dynamic range, coverage, and sensitivity.
- Existing telescopes hinder progress in detailed compositional and meteorological studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To outline key planetary science use cases for the proposed Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST).
- To detail how AtLAST's capabilities will address limitations in current astronomical observations.
- To drive new insights into planetary environments and habitability.
Main Methods:
- Designing the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST), a 50-m class single dish facility.
- Leveraging improved spatial coverage, resolution, bandwidth, dynamic range, and sensitivity.
- Conducting spectroscopic observations of planetary atmospheres, moons, and comets.
Main Results:
- Characterizing planetary wind fields and atmospheric thermal structures.
- Measuring compositions of icy moon atmospheres and plumes.
- Detecting astrobiologically relevant gases and performing isotopic surveys of comets.
- Enabling synergistic, temporally-resolved measurements for space missions.
Conclusions:
- AtLAST's advanced capabilities will significantly enhance our understanding of planetary environments.
- The facility will provide crucial data on prebiotic molecule origins and planetary system habitability.
- AtLAST represents a major step forward in exploring the Solar System and beyond.
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