THEIA
Overview
Over the past 25 years, the Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionized our view of the universe, excited and engaged the general public with its compelling images, and has been a workhorse for astrophysics. We propose that NASA build THEIA, Telescope for Habitable Exoplanets and Interstellar/Intergalactic Astronomy, a flagship 4-meter on-axis optical/UV telescope as a worthy successor to HST and companion to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). With a wide field imager, an ultraviolet spectrograph, a planet imager/spectrograph and a companion occulter, THEIA is capable of addressing many of the most important questions in astronomy: Are we alone? Are there other habitable planets? How frequently do solar systems form and survive? How do stars and galaxies form and evolve? How is dark matter distributed in galaxies and in the filaments? Where are most of the atoms in the universe? How were the heavy elements necessary for life created and distributed through cosmic time?
The THEIA Observatory is
an on-axis three-mirror anastigmat telescope with a 4-meter $\mbox{Al/MgF}_{\mbox{2}}$-coated primary, an Al/LiF-coated secondary and three main instruments: Star Formation Camera (SFC), a dual-channel wide field UV/optical imager covering 19' x 15' on the sky with 18 mas pixels; UltraViolet Spectrograph (UVS) , a a multi-purpose spectrometer optimized for high sensitivity observations of faint astronomical sources at spectral resolutions, $\lambda/\Delta \lambda$, of 30,000 to 100,000 in the 100-300 nm wavelength range; and eXtrasolar Planet Characterizer (XPC), which consists of three narrow-field cameras (250-400 nm; 400-700 nm; 700-1000 nm) and two R/70 integral field spectrographs (IFS).Central to accomplishing our exoplanet science goals is a viable system for starlight suppression. The current literature describes numerous approaches, most of which involve either an internal coronagraph or an external occulter.There are many approaches to creating the needed contrast for exoplanet exploration, most of which use either an internal coronagraph or an external occulter.Both have the potential to yield similar exoplanet science (measured in number of planets discovered and characterized) with a 4 meter telescope, yet each has different technical challenges.
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Additional Information
In Greek mythology, Theia is the Titan goddess of sight (thea), is also called the ``far-seeing one''. She is the mother of the Sun, the Moon and Dawn.