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arXiv · 2509.01727

PRIMA: PRIMAger, a far-infrared hyperspectral and polarimetric instrument

Laure Ciesla·Charles Darren Dowell·Marc Sauvage·Denis Burgarella·Jochem Baselmans·Matthieu Béthermin·Jeffrey T. Booth·Charles M. Bradford·Florent Canourgues·Ivan Charles·Anne Costille·Thomas Essinger-Hileman·Lorenza Ferrari·Johan Floriot·Marc Foote·Jason Glenn·Renaud Goullioud·Matt Griffin·Oliver Krause·Willem Jellema·Elizabeth Luthman·Laurent Martin·Margaret Meixner·Tony Pamplona·Klaus M. Pontoppidan·Alexandra Pope·Thomas Prouvé·Jennifer Rocca·Johannes Staguhn·Carole Tucker
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Abstract

The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) is an infrared observatory for the next decade, currently in Phase A, with a 1.8m telescope actively cooled to 4.5K. On board, an infrared camera, PRIMAger, equipped with ultra-sensitive kinetic inductance detector (KID) arrays, will provide observers with coverage of mid-infrared to far-infrared wavelengths from 24 to 264 microns. PRIMAger will offer two imaging modes: the Hyperspectral mode will cover the 24-84 microns wavelength range with a spectral resolution R=8, while the Polarimetric mode will provide polarimetric imaging in 4 broad bands, from 80 to 264 microns. These observational capabilities have been tailored to answer fundamental astrophysical questions such as black hole and star-formation co-evolution in galaxies, the evolution of small dust grains over a wide range of redshifts, and the effects of interstellar magnetic fields in various environments, as well as to open a vast discovery space with versatile photometric and polarimetric capabilities. PRIMAger is being developed by an international collaboration bringing together French institutes (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille and CEA) through the center National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES, France), the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON, Netherlands), and the Cardiff University (UK) in Europe, as well as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in the USA.

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Laure Ciesla, Charles Darren Dowell, Marc Sauvage, Denis Burgarella, Jochem Baselmans, Matthieu Béthermin, Jeffrey T. Booth, Charles M. Bradford, Florent Canourgues, Ivan Charles, Anne Costille, Thomas Essinger-Hileman, Lorenza Ferrari, Johan Floriot, Marc Foote, Jason Glenn, Renaud Goullioud, Matt Griffin, Oliver Krause, Willem Jellema, Elizabeth Luthman, Laurent Martin, Margaret Meixner, Tony Pamplona, Klaus M. Pontoppidan, Alexandra Pope, Thomas Prouvé, Jennifer Rocca, Johannes Staguhn, Carole Tucker. 2025-09-01. PRIMA: PRIMAger, a far-infrared hyperspectral and polarimetric instrument. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.jatis.11.3.031625

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