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In early 1999, SSC Director Tom Soifer (Caltech) and SIRTF Project
Scientist Mike Werner (JPL) chartered an ad hoc advisory committee,
chaired by Robert E. Williams (Space Telescope Science Institute). The
committee met on April 29-30, 1999 in Pasadena, with the directive to
consider the most appropriate response(s) of SIRTF to the loss of WIRE.
The specific charge to the committee was to "evaluate the impact of the
loss of the core WIRE high-galactic latitude survey on SIRTF science
programs, and to advise whether and how SIRTF and the SSC should undertake
actions to redress this situation so as to maximize the scientific return
from SIRTF."
The Williams Committee Final Report is
available. Here we summarize the conclusions of the Committee:
-
The WIRE science program was very important, and would have made
an essential contribution to characterization of the IR sky at
12 and 25 microns. Its sources would likely have been important
targets for many of the programs carried out by SIRTF.
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Although SIRTF cannot duplicate the WIRE observing program, it does
have imaging capabilities at wavelengths which would produce a
representative sample of previously undetected sources in a modest
amount of observing time.
- The SIRTF Legacy Science Program is
likely to yield outstanding science, provide an early illustration of
SIRTF's capabilities to address a wide range of science, and provide early
public access to a database that will significantly help the SIRTF General
Observers. These peer-reviewed projects should remain the pillars of the
early SIRTF scientific program.
- A smaller and complementary survey to provide a representative view
of the mid-infrared sky at WIRE-level sensitivities will provide a
critical augmentation of IR sources to serve as targets for detailed
studies with SIRTF. Given the predicted ~5-year lifetime of SIRTF, it is
essential that this sample be acquired as soon as possible in order to
permit the broader community to optimize planning for early SIRTF
observations.
Recommendation
The primary recommendation of the Williams Committee was that "a special
survey of ~100 hours duration be carried out by SIRTF as its first science
observing program in order to characterize the mid-infrared sky to levels
two orders of magnitude deeper than presently known."
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