Friday, May 24, 2013

1305.5422 (D. Spergel et al.)

Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope-Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets WFIRST-AFTA Final Report    [PDF]

D. Spergel, N. Gehrels, J. Breckinridge, M. Donahue, A. Dressler, B. S. Gaudi, T. Greene, O. Guyon, C. Hirata, J. Kalirai, N. J. Kasdin, W. Moos, S. Perlmutter, M. Postman, B. Rauscher, J. Rhodes, Y. Wang, D. Weinberg, J. Centrella, W. Traub, C. Baltay, J. Colbert, D. Bennett, A. Kiessling, B. Macintosh, J. Merten, M. Mortonson, M. Penny, E. Rozo, D. Savransky, K. Stapelfeldt, Y. Zu, C. Baker, E. Cheng, D. Content, J. Dooley, M. Foote, R. Goullioud, K. Grady, C. Jackson, J. Kruk, M. Levine, M. Melton, C. Peddie, J. Ruffa, S. Shaklan
The Astro2010 Decadal Survey recommended a Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) as its top priority for a new large space mission. As conceived by the decadal survey, WFIRST would carry out a dark energy science program, a microlensing program to determine the demographics of exoplanets, and a general observing program utilizing its ultra wide field. In October 2012, NASA chartered a Science Definition Team (SDT) to produce, in collaboration with the WFIRST Project Office at GSFC and the Program Office at JPL, a Design Reference Mission (DRM) for an implementation of WFIRST using one of the 2.4-m, Hubble-quality mirror assemblies recently made available to NASA. This DRM builds on the work of the earlier WFIRST SDT, reported by Green et al. (2012). The 2.4-m primary mirror enables a mission with greater sensitivity and higher angular resolution than the 1.3-m and 1.1-m designs considered previously, increasing both the science return of the primary surveys and the capabilities of WFIRST as a Guest Observer facility. The option of adding an on-axis, coronagraphic instrument would enable imaging and spectroscopic studies of planets around nearby stars. This document presents the final report of the SDT.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.5422

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