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Photo: NASA GSFC via SLAC
The $1.6 billion Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) should be the top priority for space agency astronomers and astrophysicists to develop, the independent National Research Council report concluded.
The two year-study, titled The Astro2010 Decadal Survey “New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics", said the 5-foot (1.5-metre) field-of-view device, due to launch in 2020, was one of the most exciting generation of telescopes. Scientists said the telescope, which would orbit a "stable gravitational point" just above the Earth, would target the early universe, search for close habitable planets and “test the boundaries of fundamental physics”.
It would also answer “fundamental questions” about the nature of dark energy and search for “Exoplanets” or planets outside the Solar System.
The 23-person expert panel's report recommendations are used to decide which astronomy and astrophysics projects Nasa, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE) should fund over the next decade.
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