Sirtf Surveys and Legacy Science

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), a 0.85-meter, cryogenically-cooled telescope, will be launched in 2002. SIRTF will extensively make use of large-format detector arrays. These, combined with the sky visibility of SIRTF’s solar orbit will facilitate significant surveys. SIRTF surveys will complement observations by NASA’s other Great Observatories and will enable follow-up SIRTF studies. Data from the large, “SIRTF Legacy Science Program” will be made widely available, on a rapid, non-proprietary release, to the general astronomical community.