A Telescope Designed for the Objects Dust Hides

PRIMA — the PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics — is the first in a new class of NASA astrophysics missions called Probe Explorers, itself part of the agency's long-running Explorers Program.

Its distinguishing feature is the wavelength it works in. By observing far-infrared light, NASA says, the observatory will let scientists study cosmic objects that are heavily obscured by dust, opening new insight into how planets, stars and black holes form — and even into how the water on Earth came to be.

The appeal is easy to see: at these wavelengths, the dust that hides a forming star or a feeding black hole stops being purely an obstruction and becomes part of what is being measured.