WFIRST-2.4: What Every Astronomer Should Know

TL;DR

The WFIRST-2.4 mission, utilizing a 2.4-meter mirror, offers enhanced sensitivity and resolution for astrophysics and cosmology, enabling advanced studies of dark energy, exoplanets, galaxy evolution, and stellar populations.

Contribution

This paper presents the design reference mission for WFIRST-2.4, highlighting its improved capabilities and scientific potential enabled by the larger mirror.

Findings

Enhanced sensitivity and resolution compared to previous designs.

Potential for advanced exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy.

Broad scientific applications across astrophysics and cosmology.

Abstract

The Astro2010 Decadal Survey recommended a Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) as its top priority for a new large space mission. The report of the WFIRST-AFTA Science Definition Team (SDT) presents a Design Reference Mission for WFIRST that employs one of the 2.4-m, Hubble-quality mirror assemblies recently made available to NASA. The 2.4-m primary mirror enables a mission with greater sensitivity and higher angular resolution than the smaller aperture designs previously considered for WFIRST, increasing both the science return of the primary surveys and the capabilities of WFIRST as a Guest Observer facility. The option of adding an on-axis, coronagraphic instrument would enable imaging and spectroscopic studies of planets around nearby stars. This short article, produced as a companion to the SDT report, summarizes the key points of the WFIRST-2.4 DRM. It highlights the remarkable opportunity that the 2.4-m telescope affords for advances in many fields of astrophysics and cosmology, including dark energy, the demographics and characterization of exoplanets, the evolution of galaxies and quasars, and the stellar populations of the Milky Way and its neighbors.