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IR STIG PRIMA Seminar

Infrared Science and Technology Interest Group

Over the next few months, our talk series will be highlighting research from PRIMA's Working Groups, with this talk focusing on dust properties in galaxies in the nearby universe.  Stay tuned as well for overview talks this fall that highlight PRIMA's PI science in the areas of Protoplanetary Disks and the Evolution of Dust and Metals. 

IR STIG about IR STIG PRIMA Seminar

Location

Virtual

Dates

24 August 2026
9:00am PT / 12:00pm ET

Community

IR STIG

Type

Seminar

PRIMA: The Rise of Dust and Metals

Speaker

Irene Shivaei (Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid)

Abstract

With sensitive R~10 imaging and mapping spectroscopy from 25 to 235 μm, PRIMA will fill the order-of-magnitude gap in wavelength between the James Webb Space Telescope and ALMA, which is rich in diagnostic tracers of the multiphase gas and dust in a range of astronomical objects. In this talk, I will mainly discuss the PI science planned with PRIMA to probe dust and metals across redshifts. Despite billions of years of cosmic enrichment, elements heavier than helium still account for less than one-third of one percent of the mass of the Universe. Yet, this small contribution to the cosmic mass budget has a profound impact on galaxy evolution. In both solid and gaseous forms, metals and dust regulate the energy balance of interstellar clouds, the formation of molecules, and ultimately the process of star formation. PRIMA will study these key components of the ISM throughout cosmic time by measuring far-infrared metal lines to study metal enrichment free from the biases imposed by unknown temperature structure and dust obscuration, as well as emission from smallest dust grains, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as powerful probes of metal content, radiation (AGN vs star-forming), and ISM conditions. Moreover, with its imaging polarimetry capabilities, PRIMA will make multi-wavelength polarimetric maps of galaxies in the Local Universe across a range of galaxy properties (e.g., metallicity, star formation history), revealing how dust evolves in galaxies across different environments.

Seminar Connection

Please visit the P-CAST webpage https://prima.ipac.caltech.edu/page/p-cast for a link to join and to see all of our upcoming speakers!

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Angled from the upper left corner to the lower right corner is a cone-shaped orange-red cloud known as Herbig-Haro 49/50. This feature takes up about three-fourths of the length of this angle. The upper left end of this feature has a translucent, rounded end. The conical feature widens slightly from the rounded end at the upper right down to the lower right. Along the cone there are additional rounded edges, like edges of a wave, and intricate foamy-like details, as well as a clearer view of the black background of space. In the upper left, overlapping with the rounded end of Herbig-Haro 49/50, is a background spiral galaxy with a concentrated blue center that fades outward to blend with red spiral arms. The background of space is speckled with some white stars and smaller, more numerous, fainter white galaxies throughout.