MSV-2035 Astronomy Document - Inside Design - FINAL - FINAL

Astronomy & Astrophysics 88 have been proposed under the ISRO's Vision for Planetary Sciences and Astronomy and are being included in this document for the sake of completeness. 5.6.1 ExoWorlds The last decade has seen the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) make major inroads in the field of planetary explorations. Envisaging a giant leap forward, a pioneering ISRO mission, ExoWorlds, is proposed which holds the promise to be the world-leading facility in the next decade for studies of planets beyond the Solar System – the exoplanets. A few thousand planets have now been discovered displaying extreme diversities in their macroscopic properties. The central goal of this mission is to conduct, for the first time, a comprehensive survey of chemical composition and atmospheric processes of a large population of exoplanets. This would lead to a paradigm shift in our understanding and classification of planetary systems and shed crucial light on their formation and evolution. This breakthrough science goal will be realized through high-precision transit spectroscopy which offers a unique opportunity to probe the exoplanetary atmospheres without the need for direct imaging. To achieve this, ExoWorlds is proposed as a dedicated mission for exoplanet spectroscopy housing a focused payload that comprises a 2-meter class telescope with twomedium resolution (R~ 500) spectrometers that will span the entire NUV-Visible-IR spectral range between 0.25 - 5 m with very high photometric precision. A fine guidance sensor (FGS) along with a fast steering mirror will ensure precise pointing and stability in an L2 orbit. The unprecedented broad and simultaneous spectral coverage with high precision will enable the detection of a rich variety of chemical species; retrieve the pressure- temperature profiles; probe the outer atmospheres for clouds and hazes; and delve into the realms of habitable planets and biomarkers. With a proposed mission timeline of 5 years, ExoWorlds would place the Indian astronomy community at the forefront of the emerging field of exoplanetary science. Led by the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), ExoWorlds is a collaborative project of IIST, ISRO, IoA-University of Cambridge, TIFR, IUCAA, IIA, PRL, ARIES, SNBNCBS, IISER-Kolkata, Christ University-Bengaluru and St. Joseph's University-Bengaluru. 5.6.2 Indian Spectroscopic and Imaging SpaceTelescope (INSIST) To complement the missions in the IR wavelength range, a deep imaging instrument in the UV range is proposed. The Indian Spectroscopic and Imaging Space Telescope (INSIST) will produce high-resolution deep UV-optical images, and will also have capabilities to carry out low to medium resolution spectroscopy. The INSIST mission is a collaborative project between various institutions in the country, such as IIA, IUCAA, ARIES, PRL, TIFR and Christ University with IIA as the lead institution. Collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency that is developing a very similar mission is also being explored. The INSIST mission will explore a variety of galactic and extragalactic sources, including SNe, GRBs, globular clusters, young massive clusters in nearby galaxies, star-formation in regular spiral galaxies as well as various dwarf systems both in the local and distant Universe. Going beyond the scale of galaxies, INSIST, as part of its survey programmes, will also explore clusters, filaments and voids in the UV/optical wavelength. μ MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035