The Space Interferometer for Cosmic Evolution (SPICE) Far-IR Probe
- Author(s)
- David Leisawitz, Susanne Aalto, Jennifer Bergner, Matteo Bonato, Colm Bracken, Stephen Eales, Duncan Farrah, Grant Kennedy, Alan Kogut, Joshua Lovell, Luca Matra, Taro Matsuo, Brenda Matthews, Melissa McClure, Lee Mundy, Joan Najita, Nicole Pawellek, Petr Pokorny, David Sanders, Nicholas Scoville, Irene Shivaei, Locke Spencer, Kate Su, Jessica Sutter, Leon Trapman, Carole Tucker, C. Meg Urry, Serena Viti, David Wilner, Grant Wilson, Mark Wyatt, Dave DiPietro, Michael DiPirro, Tupper Hyde, Antonios Seas, Steven Tompkins
- Abstract
SPICE is a candidate NASA Far-IR Probe mission that could launch in 2032 and address fundamental challenges in our understanding of the universe. The SPICE mission addresses the enduring question, How did we get here? What physical processes drive the evolution of galaxies and their central massive black holes throughout cosmic time? How can we explain the diverse set of planetary system architectures? And how do developing planetary systems evolve chemically and sometimes produce habitable planets? SPICE is a spatio-spectral interferometer designed to image and spectroscopically measure circumstellar disks and many individual distant galaxies to help answer these questions. SPICE offers angular resolution matching that of the Webb telescope but at ten-times longer far-infrared wavelengths (25-400 μm). With cryo-cooled telescopes and state-of-the-art detectors, SPICE's sensitivity is about 10 times that of the Herschel Space Observatory. SPICE can provide a moderate-resolution (R ~ 3000-7000) spectrum in every spatial pixel. These spectra will be rich with information about physical and chemical conditions in the objects studied, as well as the redshifts and distances of galaxies. The SPICE Science Team envisages a Legacy Science program and a Guest Observer program. The Legacy Science program will take about 1 year out of the 5-year minimum mission lifetime, leaving at least four years of observing time open to the community's proposed investigations. In each case the observer will receive calibrated hyperspectral data cubes for analysis.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Astrophysics
- External organisation(s)
- National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), Chalmers University of Technology, University of Chicago, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Cardiff University, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, University of Hawaii, Catholic University of America, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of Warwick, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Nagoya University, Trinity College Dublin, National Research Council Canada (NRC-CNRC), Leiden University, University of Maryland, College Park, NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, University of Arizona, University of Lethbridge, University of California, San Diego, Yale University, University of Wisconsin, Madison, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, University of Cambridge
- Journal
- Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society
- Volume
- 55
- ISSN
- 0002-7537
- Publication date
- 01-2023
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103004 Astrophysics
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/71fcc2fc-4ca0-4a10-8a82-e013f98d9ea6