NASA has officially selected the PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA), proposed by University of Kansas professor Elisabeth Mills, for funding and further evaluation.

The mission will initially receive $5 million in funding for Phase A over the next year, after which NASA will reassess the proposals to determine which mission will advance.

Elisabeth Mills serves as a co-investigator on the PRIMA team, which is led by Jason Glenn at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Jason Glenn expressed enthusiasm for the project, noting its potential to enhance our understanding of black holes, galaxies, and planetary atmospheres.

PRIMA aims to tackle significant astrophysical questions, particularly regarding the origins of solar systems similar to our own, by analyzing protoplanetary disks.

The mission will also investigate the amount of water necessary for various types of planet formation, potentially providing insights into the origins of Earth's water.

To improve sensitivity and reduce infrared background noise, the telescope will be cryogenically cooled to approximately 4.5 K (-450°F).

PRIMA will be equipped with a wide-field camera, a high-resolution spectrograph, and advanced kinetic inductance detectors to effectively measure far-infrared radiation.

This ambitious mission is part of a $1 billion initiative aimed for launch in the 2030s, focusing on detecting far-infrared radiation that can only be observed from space.

The last observatory to successfully capture far-infrared wavelengths was the Herschel Space Observatory, which operated from 2009 to 2013.

Mills highlighted that PRIMA would provide unprecedented access to far-infrared wavelengths, significantly enhancing our understanding of the universe.