PRIMA at the AAS Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona - Jan 2026
PRIMA at the AAS 247 Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona - Jan 2026
  Program Number
(Location)
Presenter
(Affiliation)
Title
Tuesday
10:00–10:30 A.M. MT
Oral
Exhibitor Theater
(Exhibit Hall B/C/D)
C. Matt Bradford
(California Institute of Technology)
Seeing the hidden universe with PRIMA (PRobe Infrared Mission for Astrophysics)
Tuesday
2:40–2:50 P.M. MT
Oral 254.05
(Phoenix Convention Center,
Room 230)
Elijah Kane
(California Institute of Technology)
Progress on far-infrared kinetic inductance detector arrays for PRIMA's FIRESS spectrometer
Special Session: 343 - The PRobe Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) Mission Concept Special Session
Wednesday, January 7, 2026 - 2:00-3:30 P.M. MT
Phoenix Convention Center, Room 224 B

PRIMA (PRobe Infrared Mission for Astrophysics) is a far-infrared probe mission concept in Phase A for NASA's call for Astrophysics Explorers (APEX). PRIMA's cryogenic design and highly sensitive detectors enable unprecedented far-infrared science. PRIMA's PI science focuses on the astrochemical signatures of planet formation, the co-evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes across cosmic time, and measuring the formation and buildup of galaxies, heavy elements, and interstellar dust from cosmic noon to today.

With at least 75% of its observing time available for General Observer (GO) science, PRIMA will be a community mission and is designed to address a wide range of astrophysics. In this special session, we invite the astronomical community to come learn about this mission concept, share their ideas for GO programs, and help make this mission their own. The special session will feature two talks from PRIMA team members describing an overview of PRIMA, its science goals and capabilities. The majority of the session will be devoted to talks highlighting community-led GO science cases for volume 2 of our GO book (120 total submissions, with ~430 unique authors from 34 countries). We will have 4-6 community GO science talks. We hope to welcome posters from all members of the community and aim to have the poster session be a time for community engagement and conversation.

Presentations
  Paper Number Presenter
(Affiliation)
Title
2:00–2:10 P.M. MT 343.01 C. Matt Bradford
(California Institute of Technology)
PRIMA Mission Overview
2:10–2:20 P.M. MT 343.02 Brandon Hensley
(California Institute of Technology)
PRIMA PI Science Overview
2:20–2:30 P.M. MT 343.03 Tiffany Kataria
(Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology)
PRIMA General Observer Science
2:30–2:40 P.M. MT 343.04 Meredith MacGregor
(Johns Hopkins University)
A New Window on Stars and Disks in the FIR with PRIMA
2:40–2:50 P.M. MT 343.05 Christine Chen
(Space Telescope Science Institute)
Detecting and Characterizing Volatile Ices in Extrasolar Kuiper Belts
2:50–3:00 P.M. MT 343.06 Daniel Stern
(Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology)
Time Domain and Multi-Messenger (TDAMM) Science with PRIMA
3:00–3:10 P.M. MT 343.07 Elizabeth Tarantino
(Space Telescope Science Institute)
Tracing Dust in the Metal-poor ISM with PRIMA
3:10–3:20 P.M. MT 343.08 David Setton
(Princeton University)
Completing the Bolometric Census of Little Red Dots with PRIMA
3:20–3:30 P.M. MT 343.09 Andrew Saydjari
(Princeton University)
PRIM(All): An All-Sky, Polarized, FIR Dust Map and Point-Source Catalog
Session 370 (iPosters) - The PRobe Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) Mission Concept Special Session
Wednesday, January 7, 2026, 5:30 PM MT - 6:30 PM MT
Phoenix Convention Center, Exhibit Hall B/C/D
iPoster Number Terminal First Author
(Affiliation)
Title
370.01 20 Arielle Moullet
(National Radio Astronomy Observatory)
The PRIMA Guest Observer Science Books
370.02 21 Denis Burgarella
(Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM)
PRIMA: PRIMAger, a Hyperspectral and Polarimetric InfraRed Instrument
370.03 22 Andrew Saydjari
(Princeton University)
PRIM(All): An All-Sky, Polarized, FIR Dust Map and Point-Source Catalog
370.05 23 Margaret Meixner
(Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology)
The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA): Mission Overview
370.06 24 Lee Armus
(California Institute of Technology)
PRIMA's Science Data Center at IPAC
370.07 25 Johannes Staguhn
(Johns Hopkins University & NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
PRIMA: Understanding the Feedback Between Galaxies, their Supermassive Black Holes, and Galactic Outflows from Cosmic Noon to the Present Universe
370.08 26 Marco Cheng
(University of California, Irvine)
FIRESS Background Sensitivity Correction Tool for PRIMA
370.09 27 Dylan Paré
(Joint ALMA Observatory)
Studying the Complex Magnetic Field of the Extreme Galactic Center Using PRIMAger
370.10 28 C. Matt Bradford
(California Institute of Technology)
Design and Estimated Performance of the FIRESS spectrometer for PRIMA
370.11 29 Brandon Hensley
(Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology)
PRIMA: The Rise of Dust and Metals
370.12 30 Klaus Pontoppidan
(Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology)
The Origins of Planetary Atmospheres - A science driver for PRIMA-FIRESS
370.13 31 Elijah Kane
(California Institute of Technology)
Progress on kinetic inductance detector arrays for PRIMA’s FIRESS spectrometer
Visit PRIMA at the IPAC booth in the Exhibit Hall

PRIMA team members will be at the booth to provide information about PRIMA and chat about opportunities. Come over to meet us and get your PRIMA swag and record a testimonial about why you're excited about PRIMA and how it would advance your science.

PRIMA Social Hour

Interact with fellow PRIMA enthusiasts on Wednesday, January 7 at 6:45 P.M. at Barrel & Bushel, 122 N. 2nd Street (inside the Hyatt Regency Phoenix).