Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope

Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope
General information
Organization NASA / DOE
Launch date 2020
Mission length 3 years
Orbit period 1 year
Location 1.5×106 km
(Lagrangian point L2)
Telescope style Three-mirror
Wavelength near-infrared
Diameter ~1.5 m (4 ft 11 in)

The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is a proposed infrared space observatory which was selected by National Research Council committee as the top priority for the next decade of astronomy.

The design of WFIRST is based on one of the proposed designs for the Joint Dark Energy Mission between NASA and DOE. WFIRST adds some extra capabilities to the original JDEM proposal, including a search for extra-solar planets using gravitational microlensing.[1] WFIRST will also attempt to detect the nature of dark energy.[2]

Science objectives

WFIRST will have a single instrument, being a 144-megapixel HgCdTe focal-plane array with a pixel size of 200 milliarcseconds.

References

  1. ^ National Research Council (2010). New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Washington, D.C.: National Research Council. ISBN 0309158028. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12951.html. Retrieved 27 January 2011. 
  2. ^ WFIRST Wide-Field Infrared Telescope Home Page, http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/

External links