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Fundamental Principles
The Legacy Science program is motivated by a desire to enable large
observing programs early during Spitzer's prime mission, with the goal
of creating a substantial database of archived observations that can
be utilized by subsequent Spitzer observers. To distinguish Legacy
Science projects from General Observer investigations, the following
three fundamental principles must be satisfied:
- They must be large coherent science investigations, not
reproducible by any reasonable number or combination of smaller General
Observer programs;
- They must be programs whose scientific data, upon archiving, are of
general and lasting importance to the broad community; and
- All raw and pipeline-processed data must enter the public domain
immediately, thereby enabling timely and effective opportunities for
follow-on observations and for archival research, with both Spitzer and with
other observatories.
Legacy Science projects typically involve many hundreds of hours of
observing time. Proposed investigations that do not meet these
requirements are ineligible for the Legacy Science Program and must be
submitted in response to subsequent General Observer Calls for Proposals.
Previous space astronomy missions have implemented variations on this
theme, often as "Key Projects." Unlike those missions, however, the
Spitzer Legacy Science Program will not pre-determine science topics or
categories, and the Legacy Science Program will be open to all credible
science areas for which Spitzer can make a major contribution, and will be
open to all scientists on a competitive basis. Spitzer will rely on the
ingenuity of the user community and the peer-review process to guarantee
that the approved projects maximize the scientific legacy of Spitzer.
Go back to Legacy information home page or
on to Schedule.
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