IR Surveys with the Infra Red Imaging Surveyor (IRIS)

Abstract

ISO (like IRAS before) has significantly increased our awareness of the importance of large and/or deep surveys in the infrared in order to investigate, constrain, and ultimately understand the evolutionary and star formation history of the universe. Following the sucess of ISO, many new space borne telescope missions are planned in the coming decade (SIRTIF, FIRST, PLANCK, IRIS, HII/L2). Using the results and knowledge gained from the ISO IR surveys, what can we expect from the next generation of IR telescopes? Building on the legacy of IRAS and ISO, the IRIS ASTRO-F mission plans to undertake a large scale survey in the 50–150μm range down to fluxes of 20–50mJy covering almost the entire sky. Revised source count models, in the light of results from and dicussions stimulated by ISO, predict counts of the order of a few million galaxies.