Using ISS telescopes for electromagnetic follow-up of gravitational wave detections of NS-NS and NS-BH mergers
Abstract
The International Space Station offers a unique platform for rapid and inexpensive deployment of space telescopes. A scientific opportunity of great potential later this decade is the use of telescopes for the electromagnetic follow-up of ground-based gravitational wave detections of neutron star and black hole mergers. We describe this possibility for OpTIIX, an ISS technology demonstration of a 1.5 m diffraction limited optical telescope assembled in space, and ISS-Lobster, a wide-field imaging X-ray telescope now under study as a potential NASA mission. Both telescopes will be mounted on pointing platforms, allowing rapid positioning to the source of a gravitational wave event. Electromagnetic follow-up rates of several per year appear likely, offering a wealth of complementary science on the mergers of black holes and neutron stars.
- Publication:
-
Experimental Astronomy
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1007/s10686-013-9343-4
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1304.3705
- Bibcode:
- 2013ExA....36..505C
- Keywords:
-
- Gravitational waves;
- Gamma-ray bursts;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- doi:10.1007/s10686-013-9343-4