A Cryogenic Telescope for Far-Infrared Astrophysics: a Vision for NASA in the 2020 Decade a White Paper Submitted to NASA’S Cosmic Origins Program Office
A Cryogenic Telescope for Far-Infrared Astrophysics: A Vision for NASA in the 2020 Decade A white paper submitted to NASA’s Cosmic Origins Program Office 1,2 1 4 2,3 3,1 2 C.M. Bradford ∗ , P.F. Goldsmith , A. Bolatto , L. Armus , J. Bauer , P. Appleton , A. Cooray5,2, C. Casey5, D. Dale6, B. Uzgil7,2, J. Aguirre7, J.D. Smith8, K. Sheth10, E.J. Murphy3, C. McKenney1,2, W. Holmes1, M. Rizzo9, E. Bergin11 and G. Stacey12 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2California Institute of Technology 3Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Caltech 4University of Maryland 5University of California, Irvine 6University of Wyoming 7University of Pennsylvania 8University of Toledo 9Goddard Space Flight Center 10NRAO, Charlottesville 11University of Michigan 12Cornell University May 7, 2015 Abstract Many of the transformative processes in the Universe have taken place in regions obscured by dust, and are best studied with far-IR spectroscopy. We present the Cryogenic-Aperture Large Infrared-Submillimeter Telescope Observatory (CALISTO), a 5-meter class, space-borne telescope actively cooled to T 4 K, emphasizing moderate-resolution spec- ∼ troscopy in the crucial 35 to 600 µm band. CALISTO will enable NASA and the world to study the rise of heavy elements in the Universe’s first billion years, chart star formation and black hole growth in dust-obscured galaxies through cosmic time, and conduct a census of forming planetary systems in our region of the Galaxy. CALISTO will capitalize on rapid progress in both format and sensitivity of far-IR detectors. Arrays with a total count of a few arXiv:1505.05551v1 [astro-ph.IM] 20 May 2015 105 detector pixels will form the heart of a suite of imaging spectrometers in which each detector reaches the photon × background limit.
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