SPICA

SPace Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics


 The next generation infrared space observatory SPICA, co-proposed by a team of scientists from institutes in Europe and Japan including UCLan's Centre for Astrophysics, has been accepted by the European Space Agency (ESA) for inclusion within the agency's "Cosmic Visions" program of prospective space science missions to be flown in the 2015-2025 period. SPICA is a far-infrared space observatory with a large-aperture (3.5 m) cryogenic telescope (actively cooled to 4.5 K). The mission will address planetary formation, the way the solar system works and the origin of the universe. It will perform wide field, high sensitivity photometric mapping at high spatial resolution, spectral analysis as well as coronography of planets and planetary disks. SPICA is proposed in collaboration with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, with ESA providing the telescope and a contribution to the operations.

UCLan will help develop one of SPICA's three focal plane instruments, the so-called "European Spica Instrument" (ESI). We will perform simulations of the expected infrared signature of galaxies throughout cosmic time to constrain both the science program and the instrument design.

The composite picture on the right: The foreground image shows an artists impression of the SPICA spacecraft with the thermal shield cut away to show the telescope assembly (ISAS/JAXA). The background image is one of the Spitzer GOODS-S MIPS 24 micron deep extragalactic survey fields, which is available from the NASA Spitzer Science Centre: http://data.spitzer.caltech.edu/popular/goods/Documents/goods_dr3.html. To the left of the spacecraft the redshift spectrum of a typical starburst galaxy M82 (RAL) is shown, superimposed on an artists impression of a dusty torus surrounding an active galactic nucleus (NASA/CXO). Bottom left shows an obscured galactic star cluster taken in the near-infrared (H, J, K composite image) using the LIRIS instrument on the William Herschel Telescope (Image kindly provided by the joint CSIC and IAC MASGOMAS project). To the right it is shown how SPICA will use high resolution MIR spectroscopy to determine the structure of gaseous disks - upper (NAOJ) - and a coronagraph to image and take spectra of young planets - bottom (ISAS/JAXA).

Participating institutes:

  • Cardiff University, UK

  • CEA-CENG Service des Basses Temperatures, Grenoble, France

  • CEA-DAPNIA, Service d'Astrophysique, Saclay, France

  • Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, OMP-UPS, Toulouse, France

  • Departamento de Astrofisica Molecular e Infrarroja, IEM, CSIC, Madrid, Spain

  • GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, France

  • Gunma Astronomical Observatory, Japan

  • Hiroshima University, Japan

  • Ibaraki University, Japan

  • IMEC, Belgium

  • Imperial College, London, UK

  • Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France

  • Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Orsay, France

  • Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain

  • Instituut voor Sterrenkunde K.U. Leuven, Belgium

  • Istituto di Fisica dello spazio Interplanetario, Italy

  • Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Roma, Italy

  • Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan

  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA

  • Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), Korea

  • Kobe University, Japan

  • Kyoto University, Japan

  • Kyung Hee University, Korea

  • Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, OAMP, France

  • Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux, OASU, France

  • LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, France

  • Leiden Observatory, University of Leiden, The Netherlands

  • Max-Planck Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Germany

  • Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie, Germany

  • Max-Planck Institut für Kernphysik, Germany

  • Nagoya University, Japan

  • Nagoya City University, Japan

  • Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), The Netherlands

  • Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), The Netherlands

  • National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Japan

  • Niigata University, Japan

  • Rikkyo University, Japan

  • Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK

  • Seoul National University (SNU), Korea

  • Strathclyde University, UK

  • Sussex University, UK

  • The Open University, UK

  • Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

  • UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Edinburgh, UK

  • University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK

  • University College London, UK

  • Universita di Roma, Italy

  • University of Lethbridge, Canada

  • University of Tokio, Japan
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