WFIRST/AFTA Call for Coronagraphic Science Investigations
Susan Neff NASA's GSFC
The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is the highest priority large space mission in the 2010 decadal survey in astronomy and astrophysics. In addition to a wide-field imager and an integral field spectrograph, it is likely to include a coronograph with the primary focus of directly imaging gas-giant exoplanets and disks.
The Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (AFTA) study design of the mission makes use of an existing 2.4-meter telescope to enhance light collecting and imaging performance over the originally conceived 1.2-meter telescope.
The WFIRST-AFTA Science Definition team is requesting short white papers for potential coronographic science investigations related to NASA's Cosmic Origins theme or Physics of the Cosmos theme, that could be addressed in a Guest Observer program. These may be used in future design choices for the WFIRST mission.
More information may be found at http://cor.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/Coronagraph_call_final.pdf. Deadline for submitting white papers: 1 November 2013.