1,680 research outputs found
On-orbit performance of the Spitzer Space Telescope
The Spitzer Space Telescope (formally known as SIRTF) was successfully launched on August 25, 2003, and has completed its initial in-orbit checkout and science validation and calibration period. The measured performance of the observatory has met or exceeded all of its high-level requirements, it entered normal operations in January 2004, and is returning high-quality science data. A superfluid-helium cooled 85 cm diameter telescope provides extremely low infrared backgrounds and feeds three science instruments covering wavelengths ranging from 3.6 to 160 microns. The telescope optical quality is excellent, providing diffraction-limited performance down to wavelengths below 6.5 microns. Based on the first helium mass and boil-off rate measurements, a cryogenic lifetime in excess of 5 years is expected. This presentation will provide a summary of the overall performance of the observatory, with an emphasis on those performance parameters that have the greatest impact on its ultimate science return
The NGC 7129 Young Stellar Cluster: A Combined Spitzer, MMT, and 2MASS Census of Disks, Protostars, and Outflows
We present the analysis of seven band (1.2 to 8 micron) ground and
space-based imaging of the NGC 7129 young stellar cluster from FLAMINGOS on
MMT, 2MASS, and the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer Space
Telescope. An analysis of the H-[4.5] vs. J-H colors reveals 84 objects with
circumstellar disks. Of these, 42 are located within the cluster core, a 0.5 pc
(100'') radius region of enhanced stellar surface density. From a luminosity
and extinction limited sample of the stars within the cluster core boundary we
have determined that 54% +/- 14% have circumstellar disks. Finally, we report
the detection of several resolved outflows in the IRAC 4.5 micron mosaic.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. Accepted to the Spitzer special issue of ApJS.
The full-resolution preprint can be obtained from
http://astro.pas.rochester.edu/~rguter/preprints/gutermuth_ngc7129_a.tar.g
ExploreNEOs VIII: Dormant Short-Period Comets in the Near-Earth Asteroid Population
We perform a search for dormant comets, asteroidal objects of cometary
origin, in the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population based on dynamical and
physical considerations. Our study is based on albedos derived within the
ExploreNEOs program and is extended by adding data from NEOWISE and the Akari
asteroid catalog. We use a statistical approach to identify asteroids on orbits
that resemble those of short-period near-Earth comets using the Tisserand
parameter with respect to Jupiter, the aphelion distance, and the minimum
orbital intersection distance with respect to Jupiter. From the sample of NEAs
on comet-like orbits, we select those with a geometric albedo
as dormant comet candidates, and find that only 50% of NEAs on comet-like
orbits also have comet-like albedos. We identify a total of 23 NEAs from our
sample that are likely to be dormant short-period near-Earth comets and, based
on a de-biasing procedure applied to the cryogenic NEOWISE survey, estimate
both magnitude-limited and size-limited fractions of the NEA population that
are dormant short-period comets. We find that 0.3-3.3% of the NEA population
with , and % of the population with diameters km, are dormant short-period near-Earth comets.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in A
Identifying Primordial Substructure in NGC 2264
We present new Spitzer Space Telescope observations of the young cluster
NGC2264. Observations at 24 micron with the Multiband Imaging Photometer has
enabled us to identify the most highly embedded and youngest objects in
NGC2264. This letter reports on one particular region of NGC2264 where bright
24 micron sources are spatially configured in curious linear structures with
quasi-uniform separations. The majority of these sources (~60% are found to be
protostellar in nature with Class I spectral energy distributions. Comparison
of their spatial distribution with sub-millimeter data from Wolf-Chase (2003)
and millimeter data from Peretto et al. (2005) shows a close correlation
between the dust filaments and the linear spatial configurations of the
protostars, indicating that star formation is occurring primarily within dense
dusty filaments. Finally, the quasi-uniform separations of the protostars are
found to be comparable in magnitude to the expected Jeans length suggesting
thermal fragmentation of the dense filamentary material.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL, 5 pages, 4 figures. Color version
available from the following webpages: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~pteixeir/
and http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~clada
ExploreNEOs I: Description and first results from the Warm Spitzer NEO Survey
We have begun the ExploreNEOs project in which we observe some 700 Near Earth
Objects (NEOs) at 3.6 and 4.5 microns with the Spitzer Space Telescope in its
Warm Spitzer mode. From these measurements and catalog optical photometry we
derive albedos and diameters of the observed targets. The overall goal of our
ExploreNEOs program is to study the history of near-Earth space by deriving the
physical properties of a large number of NEOs. In this paper we describe both
the scientific and technical construction of our ExploreNEOs program. We
present our observational, photometric, and thermal modeling techniques. We
present results from the first 101 targets observed in this program. We find
that the distribution of albedos in this first sample is quite broad, probably
indicating a wide range of compositions within the NEO population. Many objects
smaller than one kilometer have high albedos (>0.35), but few objects larger
than one kilometer have high albedos. This result is consistent with the idea
that these larger objects are collisionally older, and therefore possess
surfaces that are more space weathered and therefore darker, or are not subject
to other surface rejuvenating events as frequently as smaller NEOs.Comment: AJ in pres
Photometry using the Infrared Array Camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope
We present several corrections for point source photometry to be applied to
data from the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer Space Telescope.
These corrections are necessary because of characteristics of the IRAC arrays
and optics and the way the instrument is calibrated in-flight. When these
corrections are applied, it is possible to achieve a ~2% relative photometric
accuracy for sources of adequate signal to noise in an IRAC image.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in the Publications of
the Astronomical Society of the Pacifi
ExploreNEOs. II. The Accuracy of the Warm Spitzer Near-Earth Object Survey
We report on results of observations of near-Earth objects (NEOs) performed with the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope as part of our ongoing (2009-2011) Warm Spitzer NEO survey ("ExploreNEOs"), the primary aim of which is to provide sizes and albedos of some 700 NEOs. The emphasis of the work described here is an assessment of the overall accuracy of our survey results, which are based on a semi-empirical generalized model of asteroid thermal emission. The NASA Spitzer Space Telescope has been operated in the so-called Warm Spitzer mission phase since the cryogen was depleted in 2009 May, with the two shortest-wavelength channels, centered at 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm, of the Infrared Array Camera continuing to provide valuable data. The set of some 170 NEOs in our current Warm Spitzer results catalog contains 28 for which published taxonomic classifications are available, and 14 for which relatively reliable published diameters and albedos are available. A comparison of the Warm Spitzer results with previously published results ("ground truth"), complemented by a Monte Carlo error analysis, indicates that the rms Warm Spitzer diameter and albedo errors are ±20% and ±50%, respectively. Cases in which agreement with results from the literature is worse than expected are highlighted and discussed; these include the potential spacecraft target 138911 2001 AE_2. We confirm that 1.4 appears to be an appropriate overall default value for the relative reflectance between the V band and the Warm Spitzer wavelengths, for use in correction of the Warm Spitzer fluxes for reflected solar radiation
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