In the last two decades, Spain has built up a strong infrared community which have successfully contributed, at Co-I level, to the construction and to the scientific exploitation of basically all European InfraRed (IR) space instruments. The IAC has contributed to the construction of infrared instruments for the space telescopes ISO (ISOPHOT-S) and Herschel (PACS and SPIRE).
This project merges all the technical and a large fraction of the scientific Spanish IR expertise to make the next step in IR astronomy from Space. We seek to make a quantitative and qualitative jump in the Spanish involvement in the design and the development of Mid and Far-IR space instrumentation, aiming at co-leading the construction of a cryogenic infrared instrument and maximizing the scientific return of present and future infrared space missions.
This IAC subproject requests the necessary funding to:
a) Carry out the scientific activities in the field of extragalactic research corresponding to the redefinition of the SPICA mission, now with European leadership, and the far-infrared instrument SAFARI
b) Make contributions to several Herschel extragalactic Key Projects
c) Carry out multiwavelength exploitation of the Herschel data combined with follow up studies with other telescopes and with other large extragalactic surveys: Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), HST Frontier Fields, etc.
d) Contribution to the development of the public database of the Herschel Extragalactic Legacy Project (HELP).
e) Scientific exploitation of observational data from the first extragalactic projects of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). From the technological point of view, the proposed activities of the coordinated project will develop key cryogenic components and facilities together with enabling technologies which are fundamental to consolidate the Spanish Co-leadership in the SAFARI instrument of the redefined SPICA mission.
The IAC subproject will contribute with the expertise based in the participation in the Herschel SPIRE consortium and in other large international collaborations.
Our contribution to the scientific exploitation of Herschel will continue our previous involvement/commitments in the international SPIRE consortium and in several extragalactic Herschel Key Projects, including HerMES and Herschel-ATLAS. From a scientific viewpoint, we plan to take full advantage of the Spanish investments in Herschel by carrying out a multiwavelength scientific exploitation of the Herschel data within the Key Projects in which the IAC subproject participates and in particular in the studies of infrared galaxies at very high redshift combining Herschel data with deep and/or high angular resolution observations with ALMA, IRAM/NOEMA, APEX, Spitzer, GTC, Keck, VLT, Gemini, HST and JWST. The requested funding and the proposed coordination will be fundamental to guarantee the coleadership role in the SAFARI instrument of the new redefined SPICA mission.
