Return to Answer

I am not sure whether it is in the spirit of the original question, but let me add a wordy version of Theo's extensive and excellent bibliography -- a bit more of a road map. Let me divide to this purpose chromatic homotopy theory pseudo-historically in different phases. The years denote the "main phase"; in each case developments have continued after.

This was much enhanced in the construction of $TMF$, where a sheaf of $E_{\infty}$-ring spectra was constructed on the moduli stack of elliptic curves. Theo has already linked some of the best sources for this, but I want to add Goerss's surveys, in particular his Bourbaki presentation. The derived algebraic geometry perspective was of course taken much more seriously in Lurie's approach, with the relevant articles again linked in Theo's answer.

I am not sure whether it is in the spirit of the original question, but let me add a wordy version of Emily's extensive and excellent bibliography -- a bit more of a road map. Let me divide to this purpose chromatic homotopy theory pseudo-historically in different phases. The years denote the "main phase"; in each case developments have continued after.

This was much enhanced in the construction of $TMF$, where a sheaf of $E_{\infty}$-ring spectra was constructed on the moduli stack of elliptic curves. Emily has already linked some of the best sources for this, but I want to add Goerss's surveys, in particular his Bourbaki presentation. The derived algebraic geometry perspective was of course taken much more seriously in Lurie's approach, with the relevant articles again linked in Emily's answer.

Phase 0: Prehistory -- MU and the image of J (1960 - 1965)

For the computation of $\pi_*MU$, Switzer's Algebraic Topology and Lurie's Chromatic homotopy theory are good, for example. For the image of $J$, the classic paper On the groups J(X) IV by Adams a still good to have a look at.

• The most comprehensive reference for this is Ravenel's Complex Cobordism and Stable Homotopy Groups of Spheres, Douglas C. Ravenel.
• For the structure theory of $MU_*MU$ and $BP_*BP$ it is also good to look at Part II of Adams's Stable Homotopy and Generalized Homology and at Wilsons's Brown-Peterson Homology: Introduction and sampler.
• A shorter overview to the computational aspects is also contained in Ravenel's A novice guide to the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence
• The definite article from this era is Miller-Ravenel-Wilson Periodic phenomena in the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence (1977)
• For Smith-Toda complexes it is also good to look at the much later paper The Smith-Toda complex $V((p+1)/2)$ does not exist by Nave.
• Also have a look at Goerss's The Adams-Novikov Spectral Sequence and the Homotopy Groups of Spheres

This is dominated by the theory of Bousfield localization and the Ravenel conjectures. This is well explained in Lurie's chromatic homotopy theory notes. Also Ravenel's paper Localization with respect to periodic homology theories is still a very good read. Other sources include Ravenel's "orange book" and the original papers by (Devinatz), Hopkins and Smith.

There is a notion on $v_n$-periodic unstable homotopy groups. For a survey of the (computational aspects of the) older literature, have a look at Davis's article in the Handbook of Algebraic Topology. Davis, Thompson and especially Mahowald were maybe the founders of the theory, but Bousfield did an enormous amount of work here, culminating in On the $2$-primary $v_1$-periodic homotopy groups of spaces. For the modern aspects, the notes from the Thursday seminar contain a very good treatment. There are also at least two papers of Kuhn that are recommended in this context:

• Kuhn: Goodwillie towers and chromatic homotopy: an overview
• Kuhn: Guide to telescopic functors

Phase 0: Prehistory -- Complex cobordism MU and the image of J (1960 - 1965)

For the computation of $\pi_*MU$, Switzer's Algebraic Topology and Lurie's Chromatic homotopy theory are good, for example. For the image of $J$, the classic paper On the groups J(X) IV by Adams is still good to have a look at.

• The most comprehensive reference for this is Ravenel's Complex Cobordism and Stable Homotopy Groups of Spheres, Douglas C. Ravenel.
• For the structure theory of $MU_*MU$ and $BP_*BP$ it is also good to look at Part II of Adams's Stable Homotopy and Generalized Homology and at Wilsons's Brown-Peterson Homology: Introduction and sampler.
• A shorter overview to the computational aspects is also contained in Ravenel's A novice guide to the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence
• The definitive article from this era is Miller-Ravenel-Wilson Periodic phenomena in the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence (1977)
• For Smith-Toda complexes it is also good to look at the much later paper The Smith-Toda complex $V((p+1)/2)$ does not exist by Nave.
• Also have a look at Goerss's The Adams-Novikov Spectral Sequence and the Homotopy Groups of Spheres

This is dominated by the theory of Bousfield localization and the Ravenel conjectures. This is well explained in Lurie's chromatic homotopy theory notes. Also Ravenel's paper Localization with respect to periodic homology theories is still a very good read. Other sources include Ravenel's "orange book" and the original papers by (Devinatz), Hopkins and Smith: Nilpotence and stable homotopy theory I, II.

There is a notion on $v_n$-periodic unstable homotopy groups. For a survey of the (computational aspects of the) older literature, have a look at Davis's article in the Handbook of Algebraic Topology. Davis, Thompson and especially Mahowald were maybe the founders of the theory, but also Bousfield did an enormous amount of work here, culminating in On the $2$-primary $v_1$-periodic homotopy groups of spaces. I refer also to Kuhn's Guide to telescopic functors for the general theory.

At some point, it was discovered that Goodwillie calculus interacts very nicely with unstable telescopic homotopy theory, with Arone--Mahowald's The Goodwillie tower of the identity functor and the unstable periodic homotopy of spheres as the most important early paper. Kuhn's Goodwillie towers and chromatic homotopy: an overview combines an introduction to Goodwillie calculus with an overview For the modern aspects, the notes from the Thursday seminar contain a very good overview: crucial work here is due to Behrens--Rezk (Spectral algebra models of unstable v_n-periodic homotopy theory), Heuts (Lie algebra models for unstable homotopy theory) and Arone--Ching (mostly unpublished). Also the survey article Goodwillie calculus of Arone and Ching contains a good introduction.

Phase 1: Adams-Novikov spectral sequence, formal groups and greek letters (1967- 1977) This was started by Novikov's introduction of the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence; note that in the same paper a link to formal groups was already established in an appendix by Mischenko! The main points of this phase were to develop a structure theory of BP using formal groups to do computations in the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence, in particular in relation to the elements produced by Smith-Toda complexes ($\alpha, $\beta$- and $\gamma$-family).

Phase 1: Adams-Novikov spectral sequence, formal groups and greek letters (1967- 1977) This was started by Novikov's introduction of the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence; note that in the same paper a link to formal groups was already established in an appendix by Mischenko! The main points of this phase were to develop a structure theory of BP using formal groups to do computations in the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence, in particular in relation to the elements produced by Smith-Toda complexes ($\alpha$-, $\beta$- and $\gamma$-family).