A Cryogenic Space Telescope for Far-Infrared Astrophysics: A Vision for NASA in the 2020 Decade

Understand

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 4 K, emphasizing moderate-resolution spectroscopy in the crucial 35 to 600 micron 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.