Eos is a mission concept to be proposed to the expected 2025 NASA Small Explorers Announcement of Opportunity (SMEX AO). Eos observes molecular clouds in our galaxy and nearby planet forming disks to understand the link between star and planet formation and molecular hydrogen in galactic star forming regions. Eos does this using very long-slit, high resolution spectroscopy of far ultraviolet (FUV) emission from fluorescent molecular hydrogen (H2), a powerful and underutilized FUV diagnostic. H2 is the most abundant molecule in the universe, but is typically observed in the infrared (IR) or inferred via proxies such as CO. Eos will directly observe H2 via fluorescence, which can be stimulated from a range of sources (shocks, interstellar UV radiation, bright stars, etc). Here we briefly describe the science objectives of Eos, as well as the instrument implementation.
We present Hyperion, a mission concept recently proposed to the December 2021 NASA Medium Explorer announcement of opportunity. Hyperion explores the formation and destruction of molecular clouds and planet-forming disks in nearby star-forming regions of the Milky Way. It does this using long-slit high-resolution spectroscopy of emission from fluorescing molecular hydrogen, which is a powerful far-ultraviolet (FUV) diagnostic. Molecular hydrogen (H2) is the most abundant molecule in the universe and a key ingredient for star and planet formation but is typically not observed directly because its symmetric atomic structure and lack of a dipole moment mean there are no spectral lines at visible wavelengths and few in the infrared. Hyperion uses molecular hydrogen’s wealth of FUV emission lines to achieve three science objectives: (1) determining how star formation is related to molecular hydrogen formation and destruction at the boundaries of molecular clouds, (2) determining how quickly and by what process massive star feedback disperses molecular clouds, and (3) determining the mechanism driving the evolution of planet-forming disks around young solar-analog stars. Hyperion conducts this science using a straightforward, highly efficient, single-channel instrument design. Hyperion’s instrument consists of a 48-cm primary mirror with an f/5 focal ratio. The spectrometer has two modes, both covering 138.5- to 161.5-nm bandpasses. A low resolution mode has a spectral resolution of R ≥ 10,000 with a slit length of 65 arcmin, whereas the high-resolution mode has a spectral resolution of R ≥ 50,000 over a slit length of 5 armin. Hyperion occupies a 2-week-long high-earth lunar resonance TESS-like orbit and conducts 2 weeks of planned observations per orbit, with time for downlinks and calibrations. Hyperion was reviewed as category I, which is the highest rating possible but was not selected.
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