PRIMA General Observer Science Book

Understand

PRIMA (The PRobe for-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics) is a concept for a far-infrared (IR) observatory.

• PRIMA features a cryogenically cooled 1.8 m diameter telescope and is designed to carry two science instruments enabling ultra-high sensitivity imaging and spectroscopic studies in the 24 to 235 microns wavelength range.
• The resulting observatory is a powerful survey and discovery machine, with mapping speeds better by 2 - 4 orders of magnitude with respect to its far-IR predecessors.
• The bulk of the observing time on PRIMA should be made available to the community through a General Observer (GO) program offering 75% of the mission time over 5 years.