Infrared Detector Performance In The Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)

Author(s):  
S. G. McCarthy ◽  
G. W. Autio
2001 ◽  
Vol 204 ◽  
pp. 439-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. W. Werner ◽  
William T. Reach ◽  
M. Rieke

IRAS, COBE, and ISO have demonstrated the unique importance of a cryogenic infrared telescope in space for studying diffuse infrared backgrounds and for teasing out the individual point sources which contribute to them. This importance results from the extremely high infrared sensitivity of such telescopes, particularly to diffuse radiation. The next cryogenic infrared telescope will be NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), which is currently in the final stages of construction leading to launch in 2002. SIRTF will be the first infrared space observatory to make extensive use - both for imaging and spectroscopy - of large format infrared detector arrays. The sensitivity and spatial and spectral coverage of SIRTF's array-based instruments endow SIRTF with great power for the study of the cosmic infrared background (CIRB) and related scientific issues. This paper reviews the SIRTF mission design and measurement functionality and describes SIRTF's potential studies of the CIRB, drawing examples from the programs planned by the SIRTF Guaranteed Time Observers (GTO's). We also summarize the opportunities for community participation in SIRTF.


1999 ◽  
Vol 193 ◽  
pp. 109-109
Author(s):  
Michelle Thaller

After a quarter century of dreams and designs, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) has begun formal development, with a planned launch date of December 2001. SIRTF consists of a 85 cm telescope and three cryogenically-cooled science instruments capable of performing imaging, photometry, and spectroscopy in the 3–180 μm wavelength range. Incorporating the latest in large-format infrared detector arrays, SIRTF offers orders-of-magnitude improvements in capability over existing programs. One of the many innovative aspects of this observatory is the Legacy Science program, in which hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours of observing time will be allocated to coherent groups of scientists to carry out programs whose scientific data, upon archiving, are of general and lasting importance to the broad community. The capabilities of this telesope, and the possibiltiy of participating in a Legacy Science proposal, offer the community of hot stellar astronomers an unprecedented scientific opportunity.


1988 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Ramos ◽  
S. M. Hing ◽  
C. A. Leidich ◽  
G. Fazio ◽  
J R. Houck ◽  
...  

1981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth R. Lorell ◽  
William F. Barrows ◽  
Yutaka T. Matsumoto

2020 ◽  
pp. 221-241
Author(s):  
David A. Weintraub

This chapter talks about Mike Mumma and his team, which chronologically is the first group to publicly stake a claim to having discovered methane in the atmosphere of Mars in 2003. It explores the May 2003 abstract that served as a placeholder for a presentation Mumma would give at an American Astronomical Society Division of Planetary Sciences meeting. It also cites Mumma's report on his team's attempt to detect methane on Mars using three different telescopes: NASA's 3-meter Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF), the 8-meter Gemini South telescope in Chile, and the 10-meter Keck-2 telescope. The chapter provides the details of Mumma's measurements that show that the level of methane in the Martian atmosphere was about 10 parts per billion, averaged across the full atmosphere of Mars. It points out how all the early 2004 announcements about methane on Mars received immediate attention in the popular press.


1994 ◽  
Vol 154 ◽  
pp. 151-160
Author(s):  
D. E. Jennings ◽  
D. Deming ◽  
G. Mccabe ◽  
R. Noyes ◽  
G. Wiedemann ◽  
...  

The 11 July 1991 total solar eclipse over Mauna Kea was a unique opportunity to study the limb profile of the 12.32 μm MgI emission line. Our observations used the NASA 3-meter Infrared Telescope Facility,1 and a new Goddard large cryogenic grating spectrometer. Spectra of the line were taken in the slitless mode at second contact. The results show that the emission peaks within ~ 300 km of the 12-μm continuum limb. This agrees with recent theoretical predictions for this line as a NLTE upper photospheric emission feature. However, the increase in optical depth for this extreme limb-viewing situation means that most of the observed emission arises from above Tmin, and we find that this emission is extended to altitudes well in excess of the model predictions. The line emission can be traced to altitudes as high as 2000 km above the 12-μm continuum limb, whereas theory predicts it to remain observable no higher than 500 km above the continuum limb. The substantial limb-extension observed in this line is qualitatively consistent with limb-extensions seen by other observers in the far-IR continuum, and may be indicative of departures from gravitational hydrostatic equilibrium in the upper solar atmosphere, and/or may result from temperature and density inhomogeneities. The extended altitude of formation of this line enhances its value as a Zeeman probe of magnetic fields.


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