<title>Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility Pointing And Control System</title>

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.

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INTERNAL IMAGE MOTION COMPENSATION SYSTEM FOR THE SHUTTLE INFRARED TELESCOPE FACILITY

Automatic Control in Space ◽

10.1016/b978-0-08-024449-5.50005-9 ◽

1980 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kenneth R. Lorell ◽

Eric K. Parsons ◽

J.David Powell

Keyword(s):

Motion Compensation ◽

Compensation System ◽

Image Motion ◽

Infrared Telescope ◽

Internal Image ◽

Telescope Facility ◽

Infrared Telescope Facility

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12-μM Observations at the 1991 Eclipse

Symposium - International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s0074180900124374 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 154 ◽

pp. 151-160

Author(s):

D. E. Jennings ◽

D. Deming ◽

G. Mccabe ◽

R. Noyes ◽

G. Wiedemann ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Line Emission ◽

Emission Feature ◽

Hydrostatic Equilibrium ◽

Infrared Telescope ◽

Model Predictions ◽

Theoretical Predictions ◽

Telescope Facility ◽

Density Inhomogeneities ◽

Infrared Telescope Facility ◽

The Continuum

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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