CaltechAUTHORS
Published March 15, 2019 | Version Submitted
White Paper Open

The trail of water and the delivery of volatiles to habitable planets

Creators

Abstract

Water is fundamental to our understanding of the evolution of planetary systems and the delivery of volatiles to the surfaces of potentially habitable planets. Yet, we currently have essentially no facilities capable of observing this key species comprehensively. With this white paper, we argue that we need a relatively large, cold space-based observatory equipped with a high-resolution spectrometer, in the mid- through far-infrared wavelength range (25-600~μm) in order to answer basic questions about planet formation, such as where the Earth got its water, how giant planets and planetesimals grow, and whether water is generally available to planets forming in the habitable zone of their host stars.

Attached Files

Submitted - 1903.06587.pdf

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1903.06587.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
95182
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20190502-132954085

Related works

Describes
http://arxiv.org/abs/1903.06587 (URL)

Dates

Created
2019-05-03
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2023-06-02
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Astronomy Department, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)
Series Name
Astro2020 Science White Paper