white paper
 

DR MICHAEL H WONG
VISITING SCIENTIST

SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
INSTRUMENTS DIVISION
BALTIMORE MD 21218

410/338-4711 (voice)
410/338-5090 (fax)

mikewong@stsci.edu
mikewong@astro.berkeley.edu

A dedicated space observatory for time-domain solar system science
A White Paper submitted to the 2009-2011 Planetary Science Decadal Survey

Michael H. Wong (STScI/UC Berkeley), Máté Ádámkovics (UC Berkeley), Sushil K. Atreya (Univ. Mich.), Don Banfield (Cornell), Jim Bell (Cornell), Susan Benecchi (STScI), Gordon Bjoraker (NASA GSFC), John R. Casani (JPL), John T. Clarke (Boston Univ.), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Scott G. Edgington (JPL), Leigh N. Fletcher (JPL), Richard G. French (Wellesley), William Grundy (Lowell), Amanda R. Hendrix (JPL), Erich Karkoschka (Univ. Arizona), Jian-Yang Li (Univ. Maryland), Franck Marchis (SETI/UC Berkeley), Melissa A. McGrath (NASA MSFC), William J. Merline (SwRI), Julianne I. Moses (LPI), Keith Noll (STScI), Glenn S. Orton (JPL), Kathy A. Rages (SETI), Kurt Retherford (SWRI), Kunio Sayanagi (Caltech), Nick Schneider (CU), Eric H. Smith (Lockheed Martin), Lawrence A. Sromovsky (UW-Madison), Nathan J. Strange (JPL), Anne Verbiscer (Univ. Virginia), Padmavati A. Yanamandra-Fisher (JPL)

SUMMARY The specific requirements for time-domain solar system science are adequate sampling rates and campaign durations. Existing and planned facilities for general astronomy push limits of spectral range, angular resolution, or constrast, but do not satisfy these requirements for studies of solar system dynamics. Research areas include volcanism and cryovolcanism; atmospheric dynamics; seasonal cycles; mutual events, astrometry and occultations of small solar system bodies; auroral, solar wind, and magnetospheric interactions; and cometary evolution. The observatory must be spaceborne both to satisfy the time-domain requirements as well as to maintain access to the dynamically significant ultraviolet spectral range.