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The Origins Space Telescope

Nature Astronomy volume 2, pages 596–599 (2018)Cite this article

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The Origins Space Telescope, one of four large Mission Concept Studies sponsored by NASA for review in the 2020 US Astrophysics Decadal Survey, will open unprecedented discovery space in the infrared, unveiling our cosmic origins.

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Fig. 1: Are we alone in the Universe?

Sun image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech; rest of image, NASA Goddard/JPL-Caltech

Fig. 2: OST simultaneously traces star formation, feedback and active galactic nuclei over cosmic history.

NASA/JPL-Caltech; star formation inset panel courtesy of NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ Harvard-Smithsonian CfA; feedback panel courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Megeath (University of Toledo); AGN panel courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

Fig. 3: OST offers an expansive new discovery space.

NASA and the Origins Space Telescope Science and Technology Definition Team

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Cara Battersby

  2. Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Lee Armus & Sean Carey

  3. Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Edwin Bergin

  4. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Tiffany Kataria, C. Matt Bradford, Deborah Padgett & Eric E. Mamajek

  5. Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Margaret Meixner, Kevin B. Stevenson & Klaus Pontoppidan

  6. Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Margaret Meixner & Johannes Staguhn

  7. Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    Alexandra Pope

  8. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Asantha Cooray

  9. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    David Leisawitz, Stefanie N. Milam, Johannes Staguhn, Susan G. Neff & S. Harvey Moseley

  10. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Douglas Scott

  11. Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    James Bauer

  12. Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    C. Matt Bradford & Jonas Zmuidzinas

  13. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    Kimberly Ennico & Thomas Roellig

  14. Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Jonathan J. Fortney

  15. Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Lisa Kaltenegger

  16. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Gary J. Melnick

  17. Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Desika Narayanan

  18. Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

    Karin Sandstrom

  19. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Kate Y. L. Su

  20. Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA

    Joaquin Vieira

  21. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Edward Wright

  22. Astrophysics Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, USA

    Kartik Sheth & Dominic Benford

  23. Laboratoire d’Astrophysique, University of Marseille, Marseille, France

    Denis Burgarella

  24. Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers Institute of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, Onsala, Sweden

    Elvire De Beck

  25. Sorbonne Université, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Paris, France

    Maryvonne Gerin & Martina C. Wiedner

  26. SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Frank P. Helmich

  27. Department of Astronomy, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Itsuki Sakon

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Correspondence to Cara Battersby.

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Battersby, C., Armus, L., Bergin, E. et al. The Origins Space Telescope. Nat Astron 2, 596–599 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0540-y

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