FRIDA FRIDA's design is unique and gives it an important advantage over the few similar instruments in the world. Its ability to provide high spatial resolution images, of the order of a few tens of milliseconds of arc, and to perform integral field spectroscopy opens wide the possibilities for the study of our Universe, being many of the scientific programs in which it will work as, for example:

The study of the cores of planetary nebulae and pre-planetary nebulae.

These objects represent the last life stages of stars between 1 and 8 solar masses. These stars are the most common stars in galaxies and therefore determinant in the evolution of galaxies.
In the last two decades, and thanks largely to high spatial resolution data generated by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), as well as very high resolution spectra, it has been found that the development of a large number of planetary nebulae is dominated by multipole structures with point and mirror symmetry, high velocity collimated jets and equatorial toroids of granular structure composed of multiple cometary knots of low degree of ionization. The origin of these structures is unclear and their existence in these late stages of stellar evolution remains surprising. Recent research in the field indicates that magnetic fields and binary systems, including planets in their cores, are the most likely sources of these phenomena.

At the level of our solar system, it will be possible to study natural satellites, craters and volcanoes of the planets.

It will be able to resolve, spatially and spectrally for close cases, either by direct imaging or by integral field spectroscopy, the structure of the stellar core. In addition, it will be able to obtain kinematic data at scales of only a few astronomical units of the nucleus that reveal the source zones of collimated jets and, consequently, will allow distinguishing between the various theories of jet generation or high velocity collimated flows.

Observations of the young and complex planetary nebula Hb 12 were recently made with the Geminis North telescope, an 8 m diameter telescope with its ALTAIR adaptive optics system and the NIFS integral field spectrometer of moderate spectral resolution of 50 km/s. These observations, which reached 0.1 arcsec spatial resolution, revealed a multitude of previously unknown structures that bring us closer to understanding the physical mechanisms of formation and evolution of this type of object. FRIDA observations for this object, as a comparison, will reach 5 times better spatial resolution (0.020 arcsec) and a spectral resolution of 10 km/s. These data will undoubtedly uncover the morphological and dynamical structure of the early stages of formation of bipolar planetary nebulae like Hb 12.

Since FRIDA will operate in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum (0.9 – 2.5 μm) it will be possible to distinguish and study in detail the dust and cold (neutral) material in and near the ionized material zones and to trace and analyze the transition by photo-dissociation of the radiation field on the partially ionized material. On the other hand, the chemical composition and physical parameters such as electronic density and temperature, at arc millisecond scales, of the ionized material and the transition zones can be analyzed by means of low and intermediate resolution spectroscopy in the infrared bands included in the FRIDA design, This should provide fundamental elements to solve the important problem of the abundance discrepancy factor (ADF) that results from deriving ion abundances from collisional lines and recombination lines, both in planetary nebulae and in H II regions.

It will be possible to distinguish binary companions close to each other, planetary formation disks around young stars, measure the velocity of gas with accuracies that cannot yet be achieved with existing instruments, and study galaxies with peculiar and intense star formation, called Starbursts, the interactions between galaxies, and the properties and evolution of galaxy clusters that populate the Universe.

In addition, FRIDA will have the possibility to implement a stellar coronagraphy mode in the near future. Stellar coronagraphy techniques allow eclipsing the light of a star in order to increase the contrast and be able to observe extrasolar planets directly. With these features, FRIDA will have the capability to tackle a large number of major astrophysical problems.