OWL-Moon: Very high resolution spectropolarimetric interferometry and imaging from the Moon: exoplanets to cosmology

Jean Schneider (1) , Joseph Silk (2, 3) , Farrokh Vakili (4)

1 Observatoire de Paris
2 IAP - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
3 JHU - Johns Hopkins University
4 OCA - Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur

We outline a concept for OWL-Moon, a 50-100 m aperture telescope located on the surface of the Moon, to address three major areas in astronomy, namely the detection of biosignatures on habitable exoplanets, the geophysics of exoplanets, and cosmology. Such a large lunar telescope, when coupled with large Earth-based telescopes, would allow Intensity Interferometric measurements, leading to pico-arcsecond angular resolution. This would have applications in many areas of astronomy and is timely in light of the renewed interest of space agencies in returning to the Moon.

Keywords: Cosmology; Exoplanets; Lunar telescope; Intensity interferometry; Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics; Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]

Jean Schneider, Joseph Silk, Farrokh Vakili. OWL-Moon: Very high resolution spectropolarimetric interferometry and imaging from the Moon: exoplanets to cosmology. Experimental Astronomy, 2022, ⟨10.1007/s10686-022-09868-3⟩. ⟨insu-03839655⟩