EarthShine: Observing our world as an exoplanet from the surface of the Moon

Journal Article · 24 January 2022 · Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/1.jatis.8.1.014003 · OSTI ID:1867110

Boyd, Patricia T. ^[1]; Wilson, Emily L. ^[1]; Smale, Alan P. ^[1]; Supsinskas, Pete ^[2]; Livengood, Timothy A. ^[3]; Hewagama, Tilak ^[1]; Villanueva, Geronimo L. ^[1]; Marshak, Alexander ^[1]; Krotkov, Nickolay A. ^[1]; Pokorny, Petr ^[4]; Bixler, Jay ^[2]; Noland, Jonathan D. ^[2]; Ramu, Guru ^[5]; Cleveland, Paul ^[6]; Ganino, John ^[2]; Jhabvala, Murzy ^[1]; Quintana, Elisa ^[1]; Gilbert, Emily ^[7]; Colón, Knicole ^[1]; Arney, Giada N. ^[1] ; Domagal-Goldman, Shawn D. ^[1]; Mandell, Avi M. ^[1]; Barclay, Tom ^[8]; Kuchner, Marc ^[1]; Ott, Lesley ^[1]

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1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
3. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
4. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); The Catholic Univ. of America, Washington, DC (United States)
5. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Mach 33 Engineering LLC, Laurel, MD (United States)
6. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Energy Solutions International, LLC, Laytonsville, MD (United States)
7. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
8. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD (United States)

NASA’s return to the Moon coincides with explosive growth in exoplanet discovery. Missions are being formulated to search for habitable planets orbiting other stars, making this the ideal time to deploy an instrument suite to the lunar surface to help us recognize a habitable exoplanet when we see it. We present EarthShine, a technically mature, three-instrument suite to observe the whole Earth from the Moon as an exoplanet proxy. EarthShine data will validate and improve models critical for designing missions to image and characterize exoplanets, thus informing observing strategies for flagship missions to directly image exoplanets. EarthShine will answer interconnected questions in Earth and lunar science, exoplanets, and astrobiology, related to the credo “follow the water.” EarthShine can take advantage of current NASA programs to conduct science from the Moon with low-cost, mature space hardware to reduce risk and assure success. Like the 1968 Apollo Earthrise image of our home planet, lonely in the black sky, the appeal of EarthShine to a multidisciplinary array of researchers in Earth Science, Planetary Science, and astrophysics will maximize both its scientific impact and its impact on the general public.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); NASA Goddard Internal Research and Development program; NASA Astrobiology Program; NASA ISFM EIMM; NASA Solar System Workings; NASA SSERVI
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-07NA27344; 80NSSC18K0829; 80GSFC21M0002; 80NSSC21K0153; 80NSSC19M0217
• OSTI ID: 1867110
• Report Number(s): LLNL-JRNL-822323; 1034704; TRN: US2306143
• Journal Information: Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, Vol. 8, Issue 01; ISSN 2329-4124
• Publisher: SPIECopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English