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, Hensley, and Sauvage 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
• Burgarella et al. PRIMAger Science Pending Submission

• Bisigello et al. Sieging HELM's deep: PRIMA unveils the far-infrared properties of highly extincted low-mass galaxies https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01305
• Boquien et al. Synergy between Roman and PRIMA imaging capabilities for large extragalactic survey https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01686
• Boselli, Sauvage, and Ciesla Dust stripping in cluster galaxies: a PRIMA perspective https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02764
• Chastenet et al. The radial variation of the silicate-to-carbon ratio in M31 probed by PRIMA https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01990
• Clements and Peel Probing the Transient Far-IR Sky with PRIMA https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02135
• Donnan et al. A Census of the Most Obscured Galaxy Nuclei over Cosmic Time to be revealed by PRIMA https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.11611
• Faisst et al. Understanding the Evolution of Black Hole Accretion and Dust out to z=4 with a Deep Imaging Extragalactic Survey with PRIMA https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01674
• Fernández-Ontiveros, Spinoglio, and Nagao Black hole accretion, star formation, and chemical evolution with PRIMA/FIRESS spectroscopy: toward the cosmic noon and beyond https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.06954
• Fritz et al. PRIMA survey of the Virgo cluster https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.04678
• Galliano et al. The PRIMA promise of deciphering interstellar dust evolution with observations of the nearby Universe https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01692
• Gruppioni et al. Need for PRIMA to understand the nature and ISM physical conditions of HST-dark galaxies https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01988
• Isobe et al. Far-infrared probing with PRIMA into particle acceleration associated with relativistic jets from active galactic nuclei https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01876
• Jiménez-Serra et al. Measuring metal-sulfides in interstellar dust with PRIMA https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02067
• Lis et al. Isotopic composition of cometary water and the origin of Earth’s oceans https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01834
• Maglione et al. PRIMA Vista: far-infrared polarimetry to unveil small-scale magnetohydrodynamics in extragalactic observations https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02533
• Okuya and Nomura Detecting water ice and vapor disks originating from icy planetary bodies around white dwarfs with future PRIMA observations https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01697
• Onaka et al. Searching for missing interstellar oxygen in the far-infrared https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01846
• Paré et al. The Complex Magnetic Field of the Extreme Galactic Center: PRIMA Science Potential https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.11344
• Pattle et al. Mapping Magnetic Fields from Clouds to Cores with PRIMAger https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01796
• Skalidis et al. Investigating the role of magnetic fields in the formation and evolution of striations in interstellar clouds with PRIMA https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01678
• Takeuchi et al. Search for the radiative decay of the cosmic neutrino background through spectral measurements of the cosmic infrared background using PRIMA https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18590
• Tetarenko, Gandhi, and Pawar Rapid far-infrared spectral-timing of X-ray binaries with PRIMA https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.10739
• Traina et al. Recovering the Dust Mass Budget with PRIMA https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01671
• Yoon et al. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the High-redshift Universe: Prospect of the PRIMA FIRESS low-resolution spectroscopy https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02470
• Zavagno et al. Characterising the interplay between Galactic star formation and ionisation feedback with PRIMA https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.10654