WISH: Wide-field Imaging Surveyor for High-redshift

WISH is a space science mission whose primary goal is to reveal the first-generation galaxies in the early young universe. We launch a 1.5m-aperture telescope equipped with 0.5-degree-diameter wide-field NIR camera by the end of 2010s in order to conduct ultra-deep and wide-area sky survey with the depth that cannot have been achieved by previous ground-base telescopes. WISH should be a very powerful and unique facility not only for the search for first-generation objects but also for study of dark energy and many other fields in astronomy.

Primary Scientific Goals

  • Search for the most-distant first-generation galaxies and revealing the galaxy distribution and properties in the era of cosmic re-ionization
  • Study of the expansion history of the universe and properties of dark energy by using a very large sample of high-redshift Type-Ia Supernovae
  • Extensive study of galaxy formation and evolution utilizing the unique wide-area NIR observations from space.

These scientific goals are indeed among the most important questions in modern astronomy, and at the same time, they are improvement or extension of what achieved by the current, world-leading Japanese facilities, such as Subaru 8.2m telescope. It is indeed an effort for Japanese astronomers to seek the cutting-edge frontier fields in astronomy. On the other hand, the concept of WISH, namely the very wide-field (0.5-deg) FoV camera working at 1-5μm is unique and powerful among the various on-going or approved missions.

Current Status

Foundation of the WISH working-group has been approved by the JAXA/ISAS Space Science Commitee in Sept. 2008. Currently WISH team members have regular meetings to discuss scientific goals, specifications of telescope, camera and satellite, and we are executing research, development and tests on essential technical components.

The WISH team is preparing a draft of the mission proposal, which describes scientific objectives, mission requirements and goals, and summay of R & D activities to study the feasibility of the mission. The first draft (written in Japanese) has been completed in 2012. We are continuing the R & D and survey design studies for JAXA/ISAS mission proposal.

Joint WISH + First Galaxies International Workshop

September 22-24, 2014 @ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, France

Workshop web page at LAM.
Programs and slides.

December 2-3, 2013 at NAOJ Mitaka, Tokyo
Workshop page

WISH International Mini Workshop March 2013

2013/03/27 Department of Astronomy, Univ. of Tokyo

Mini Workshop page

WISH Science Workshop 2012

Location: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka campus, Subaru building, Large Seminar Room
Date: July 19th (Thu) and 20th (Fri)

Science Workshop page (in Japanese)

Recent Activities

  • [2012/08/09] The WISH team made presentations in the GOPIRA (Group of Optical and Infrared Astronomers) symposium in NAOJ Mitaka.
  • [2012/07/21] T. Morokuma introduced the WISH mission in the Supernova Cosmology Project collaboration meeting in LBNL.
  • [2012/07/19] Community Science Workshop 2012 in NAOJ Mitaka HQ. Extensive and intensive discussions were made on science cases using WISH - from distant galaxies and cosmology to solar system objects.
  • [2012/07/03] Oral presentation at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2012 in Amsterdam.
  • [2012/01/05] Oral and poster presentations were made in JAXA / ISAS Space Science Symposium #12.
  • [2011/09/02] I. Iwata made an oral presentation at the international conference "Feeding the Giants: ELTs in the era of Surveys" to stress the importance of the WISH mission for providing large number of sample high-z galaxies to ELTs.
  • [2011/05/06] We had an intensive meeting to summarize the R&D activities made so far and to discuss work items to complete the mission proposal.
  • [2011/01/05] Oral presentation on the status of the WISH project and some poster presentations were made in JAXA / ISAS Space Science Symposium #11.
  • [2010/12/17] Contributed talk at SPICA Science workshop in Mitaka, Tokyo.
  • [2010/07/18] Prof. Toru Yamada made an oral presentation about WISH at COSPAR 2010, Bremen.
  • [2010/06/27] Prof. Toru Yamada made an oral presentation about WISH at SPIE 2010, San Diego.
  • [2010/03/10] We had a Science-oriented meeting "WISH Science Meeting" at NAOJ Mitaka Campus. This meeting aimed at discussing some critical aspects of WISH specifications such as filter set, wavelength coverage, survey design and so son. More than 20 participants intensively discussed these issues. Discussions and action items specified in this meeting will become a starting point of the WISH mission proposal.
  • [2009/11/17] A poster presenation of WISH mission was made in the conference "Observing the Dark Universe with Euclid" held in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
  • [2009/08/17] An oral presentation of WISH mission was made in the conference "Reionization with Multi-frequency Datasets" held in Stockholm, Sweden.
  • [2009/08/04] A poster presenation of WISH mission was made in the Joint discussion #12 of IAU General Assembly held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  • [2009/04/08] We had the first science workshop for WISH at NAOJ Mitaka campus. There were more than 40 participants from various institutes and universities in Japan and we recognized enormous amount of scientific interests for wide-field near-infrared imaging from space. Here are workshop program and on-line proceedings, although most of presentations were made in Japanese.

WISH mission, wishmission, wide-field imaging surveyor for high-redshift, cosmic reionization, galaxy formation



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