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The Infra-Red Telescope on board the THESEUS mission

The Infra-Red Telescope (IRT) on board the Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS) ESA M5 candidate mission will play a key role in identifying and characterizing moderate to high redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts afterglows. The IRT is the enabling instrument on board THESEUS for me...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2018-02
Main Authors: Götz, D, Boulade, O, Cordier, B, E Le Floc'h, Pinsard, F, Amiaux, J, Tourrette, T, Basa, S, Vergani, S, Atteia, J L, Covino, S, Ghirlanda, G, Tanvir, N, Blain, A, O'Brien, P, Rossi, A, Stratta, G, Casella, P G, Bozzo, E, Tenzer, C, Orleanski, P, Amati, L
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Language:English
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Summary:The Infra-Red Telescope (IRT) on board the Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS) ESA M5 candidate mission will play a key role in identifying and characterizing moderate to high redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts afterglows. The IRT is the enabling instrument on board THESEUS for measuring autonomously the redshift of the several hundreds of GRBs detected per year by the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) and the X- and Gamma-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (XGIS), and thus allowing the big ground based telescopes to be triggered on a redshift pre-selected sample, and finally fulfilling the cosmological goals of the mission. The IRT will be composed by a primary mirror of 0.7 m of diameter coupled to a single camera in a Cassegrain design. It will work in the 0.7-1.8 {\mu}m wavelength range, and will provide a 10x10 arc min imaging field of view with sub-arc second localization capabilities, and, at the same time, a 5x5 arc min field of view with moderate (R up to ~500) spectroscopic capabilities. Its sensitivity, mainly limited by the satellite jitter, is adapted to detect all the GRBs, localized by the SXI/XGIS, and to acquire spectra for the majority of them.
ISSN:2331-8422