Spitzer Mission Extension: Cycle-14 Call for Proposals Update

Consistent with the 2016 NASA Astrophysics Senior Review, which recommended that the Spitzer Space Telescope be operated until the James Webb Space Telescope is launched and successfully commissioned, NASA has extended the Spitzer mission through November 2019. In this so-called Beyond mission, Spitzer is doing a wide range of science, from exoplanet studies (microlensing, transits, characterization), to characterizing near-Earth objects (NEOs), to surveying large extragalactic fields. The Cycle-14 Call for Proposals is still open and solicits the final year of Spitzer observations.

Commensurate with the extension of science operations, the Cycle-14 Call for Proposals is updated as follows:

• Proposal due date: extended one week to 23 March 2018
• Cycle-14 is now 13 months long: 1 November 2018 to 30 November 2019
• Observing time available is increased to 6,000 hours: priority 1 = 4,000 hours, priority 2 = 2,000 hours
• There is no longer a 500-hour practical limit to the proposal size, as multiple visibility windows should be possible for all targets. Any size proposal may be submitted.

New science that could not reasonably be proposed by the Cycle-14 deadline will continue to be supported through Director's Discretionary Time.

The updated call for proposals is available electronically from the Proposal Kit section of the Spitzer Science Center website.

Any questions should be addressed to the Spitzer Helpdesk.