Ward-Duong Submits Hubble STIS White Paper on 1150-10,300Å High-Contrast Spectroscopy
Updated
Updated · Astrobiology News · Jun 9
Ward-Duong Submits Hubble STIS White Paper on 1150-10,300Å High-Contrast Spectroscopy
1 articles · Updated · Astrobiology News · Jun 9
Summary
A 5-page white paper argues Hubble’s STIS should remain a key 2030s science tool, highlighting an underused mode for high-contrast visible and ultraviolet coronagraphic spectroscopy.
STIS is described as the only facility able to perform both visible- and UV-light coronagraphic spectroscopy, with spectra spanning 1150-10,300Å at resolutions of about R~500-10,000.
The paper says placing bright sources behind STIS occulting bars enables spatially resolved spectra of faint companions and environments, with starlight subtraction reaching visible-light contrasts of roughly 10^-4 to 10^-5.
Those capabilities could support studies of exoplanets, brown dwarfs, circumstellar disks, young and evolved stars, binaries, and active galactic nuclei, while complementing future Roman coronagraph work.
The authors frame STIS high-contrast UV spectroscopy as a pathfinder for the Habitable Worlds Observatory and as input to STScI’s roadmap for Hubble science into the 2030s.