The Observatory for Multi-Epoch Gravitational Lens Astrophysics (OMEGA)
Abstract
(abridged) The Observatory for Multi-Epoch Gravitational Lens Astrophysics (OMEGA) is a mission concept for a 1.5-m near-UV through near-IR space observatory that will be dedicated to frequent imaging and spectroscopic monitoring of ~100 multiply-imaged active galactic nuclei over the whole sky. Using wavelength-tailored dichroics with extremely high transmittance, efficient imaging in six channels will be done simultaneously during each visit to each target. The separate spectroscopic mode, engaged through a flip-in mirror, uses an image slicer spectrograph. After a period of many visits to all targets, the resulting multidimensional movies can then be analyzed to a) measure the mass function of dark matter substructure; b) measure precise masses of the accreting black holes as well as the structure of their accretion disks and their environments over several decades of physical scale; and c) measure a combination of the local Hubble expansion and cosmological distances to unprecedented precision.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0806.1884,
title = {The Observatory for Multi-Epoch Gravitational Lens Astrophysics (OMEGA)},
author = {Leonidas A Moustakas and Adam J Bolton and Jeffrey T Booth and James S Bullock and Edward Cheng and Dan Coe and Christopher D Fassnacht and Varoujan Gorjian and Cate Heneghan and Charles R Keeton and Christopher S Kochanek and Charles R Lawrence and Philip J Marshall and R Benton Metcalf and Priyamvada Natarajan and Shouleh Nikzad and Bradley M Peterson and Joachim Wambsganss},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0806.1884},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Proceedings paper for the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008