September 3, 2025

The PRobe Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) team is excited to announce the release of a Special Issue in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS), Volume 11 Issue 03. This issue was edited by Naseem Rangwala and Matt Griffin.

The Special Issue is focused on the PRIMA mission concept and features authors from the PRIMA team and wider scientific community. The PRIMA team led eight papers in the issue, covering an overview of the mission (Glenn et al.), its instruments (Bradford et al., Ciesla et al., Dipirro et al., Dowell et al., and van Berkel et al.), and key science goals (Burgarella et al., Pontoppidan et al.).

It features an additional 30 papers from the broader scientific community from US-based scientists and from scientists around the world. These papers describe the exciting science envisioned for the PRIMA mission concept and cover topics ranging from the origin of Earth’s oceans, interstellar dust, young stars and the Galactic plane, galaxies near and far, black hole accretion, magnetic fields, X-ray binaries, and the cosmic infrared background. The compelling science described in these papers uses all PRIMA instrument modes: the high- and low-resolution FIRESS modes, PRIMAger continuum and polarization observations, and exploring the changing far-infrared universe in the time domain. The PRIMA team is thrilled by the community excitement and support for this mission concept.

• Naseem Rangwala and Matt Griffin The PRIMA Probe-Class Mission Concept https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.11.3.031601
• Glenn et al. PRIMA mission concept https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.11.3.031628
• Bradford et al. The Far-Infrared Enhanced Survey Spectrometer (FIRESS) for PRIMA: Approach and Estimated Performance https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02518
• Ciesla et al. PRIMA: PRIMAger, a far-infrared hyperspectral and polarimetric instrument https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.11.3.031625
• Di Pirro et al. Continuous adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator for the PRobe far-infrared mission for astrophysics (PRIMA) https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.11.3.031633
• Dowell et al. Simulation of the far-infrared polarimetry approach envisioned for the PRIMA mission https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.11.3.031624
• van Berkel et al. Relative observing speed of lens-coupled absorber focal plane arrays for far-IR imaging and spectroscopy: a PRIMA case study https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.11.3.031613
• Pontoppidan et al. The Far-Infrared Enhanced Survey Spectrometer (FIRESS) for PRIMA: Science Drivers https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01800