Schedule Aug 03, 2012
Using ISS Telescopes for Electromagnetic Follow-ups to Gravitational Wave Detections of NS-NS and NS-BH Mergers
Jordan Camp (NASA/GSFC)

The International Space Station offers a unique platform for rapid and inexpensive deployment of space telescopes. A scientific opportunity of tremendous 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.

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