Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21548115f&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #481.15; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.573
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
The Joint Astrophysics Nascent Universe Satellite (JANUS) is a Small Explorer mission concept that completed a NASA-funded Phase A study in March 2009. JANUS will open a new and valuable window onto the cosmic reionization - the illumination of the Universe - by discovering and observing the brightest beacons from high-redshift: gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows and quasars. Over the course of a two-year prime mission, JANUS will detect 50 GRBs from redshifts z>5, out to a highest redshift of z 12, using its wide-field X-ray Flash Monitor (1-20 keV). Each GRB position, near-infrared afterglow brightness, and redshift will be measured and reported in near real-time via subsequent observations with the onboard 50-cm Near-Infrared Telescope, which will provide R 14 imaging spectroscopy over 0.7-1.7 µm. Between burst alerts, JANUS will survey the full extragalactic sky (20,000 deg2), gathering spectra of 500 million sources to continuum depths of J=19.6 mag (4-sigma) and discovering more than 300 quasars at z>6, out to a highest redshift of z 10. Each high-redshift GRB and quasar discovered by JANUS will be bright enough for high signal-to-noise spectroscopy with current and next-generation ground-based telescopes and satellite observatories, including the James Webb Space Telescope.
Fox Derek B.
JANUS Team
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