1-1.4 Micron Spectral Atlas of Stars

We present a catalog of J-band (1.08 um to 1.35 um) stellar spectra at low resolution (R ~ 400). The targets consist of 105 stars ranging in spectral type from O9.5 to M7 and luminosity classes I through V. The relatively featureless spectra of hot stars, earlier than A4, can be used to remove the atmospheric features which dominate ground-based J-band spectroscopy. We measure equivalent widths for three absorption lines and nine blended features which we identify in the spectra. Using detailed comparison with higher resolution spectra, we demonstrate that low resolution data can be used for stellar classification, since several features depend on the effective temperature and gravity. For example The CN index (1.096 - 1.104 um) decreases with temperature, but the strength of a blended feature at 1.28 um (consisting of primarily P beta) increases. The slope of a star's spectrum can also be used to estimate its effective temperature. The luminosity class of a star correlates with the ratio of the Mg I (1.1831 um) line to a blend of several species at 1.16 um. Using these indicators, a star can be classified to within several subclasses. Fifteen stars with particularly high and low metal abundances are included in the catalog and some spectral dependence on metal abundance is also found.Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures (3a-e are in gif format. For complete high resolution figures, go to http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~malkan/newjspec/) ; Accepted for published in ApJS; For associated spectra files, see http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~malkan/newjspec

The WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel (WISP) Survey

We present the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel (WISP) Survey. WISP is obtaining slitless, near-infrared grism spectroscopy of ~ 90 independent, high-latitude fields by observing in the pure parallel mode with Wide Field Camera-3 on the Hubble Space Telescope for a total of ~ 250 orbits. Spectra are obtained with the G102 (lambda=0.8-1.17 microns, R ~ 210) and G141 grisms (lambda=1.11-1.67 microns, R ~ 130), together with direct imaging in the J- and H-bands (F110W and F140W, respectively). In the present paper, we present the first results from 19 WISP fields, covering approximately 63 square arc minutes. For typical exposure times (~ 6400 sec in G102 and ~ 2700 sec in G141), we reach 5-sigma detection limits for emission lines of 5 x 10^(-17) ergs s^(-1) cm^(-2) for compact objects. Typical direct imaging 5sigma-limits are 26.8 and 25.0 magnitudes (AB) in F110W and F140W, respectively. Restricting ourselves to the lines measured with highest confidence, we present a list of 328 emission lines, in 229 objects, in a redshift range 0.3 < z < 3. The single-line emitters are likely to be a mix of Halpha and [OIII]5007,4959 A, with Halpha predominating. The overall surface density of high-confidence emission-line objects in our sample is approximately 4 per arcmin^(2).These first fields show high equivalent width sources, AGN, and post starburst galaxies. The median observed star formation rate of our Halpha selected sample is 4 Msol/year. At intermediate redshifts, we detect emission lines in galaxies as faint as H_140 ~ 25, or M_R < -19, and are sensitive to star formation rates down to less than 1 Msol/year. The slitless grisms on WFC3 provide a unique opportunity to study the spectral properties of galaxies much fainter than L* at the peak of the galaxy assembly epoch.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Ap

K-Band Spectroscopy of an Obscured Massive Stellar Cluster in the Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/4039) with NIRSPEC

We present infrared spectroscopy of the Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/4039) with NIRSPEC at the W. M. Keck Observatory. We imaged the star clusters in the vicinity of the southern nucleus (NGC 4039) in 0.39" seeing in K-band using NIRSPEC's slit-viewing camera. The brightest star cluster revealed in the near-IR (M_K(0) = -17.9) is insignificant optically, but coincident with the highest surface brightness peak in the mid-IR (12-18 um) ISO image presented by Mirabel et al (1998). We obtained high signal-to-noise 2.03-2.45 um spectra of the nucleus and the obscured star cluster at R = 1900. The cluster is very young (age ~ 4 Myr), massive (M ~ 16E6 M_sun), and compact (density ~ 115 M_sun pc^(-3) within a 32 pc half-light radius), assuming a Salpeter IMF (0.1-100 M_sun). Its hot stars have a radiation field characterized by T_eff ~ 39,000 K, and they ionize a compact HII region with n_e ~ 10^4 cm^(-3). The stars are deeply embedded in gas and dust (A_V = 9-10 mag), and their strong FUV field powers a clumpy photodissociation region with densities n_H > 10^5 cm^(-3) on scales of ~ 200 pc, radiating L{H_2 1-0 S(1)}= 9600 L_sun.Comment: 4 pages, 4 embedded figures, uses emulateapj.sty. To appear in ApJL. Also available at http://astro.berkeley.edu/~agilber

Extremely Red Objects from the NICMOS/HST Parallel Imaging Survey

We present a catalog of extremely red objects discovered using the NICMOS/HST parallel imaging database and ground-based optical follow-up observations. Within an area of 16 square arc-minutes, we detect 15 objects with $\rm R - F160W > 5$ and $\rm F160W < 21.5$. We have also obtained K-band photometry for a subset of the 15 EROs. All of the $\rm R - F160W$ selected EROs imaged at K-band have $\rm R - K > 6$. Our objects have $\rm F110W - F160W$ colors in the range of 1.3 - 2.1, redder than the cluster ellipticals at $z \sim 0.8$ and nearly 1 magnitude redder than the average population selected from the F160W images at the same depth. In addition, among only 22 NICMOS pointings, we detected two groups or clusters in two fields, each contains 3 or more EROs, suggesting that extremely red galaxies may be strongly clustered. At bright magnitudes with $\rm F160W < 19.5$, the ERO surface density is similar to what has been measured by other surveys. At the limit of our sample, F160W = 21.5, our measured surface density is 0.94$\pm 0.24$ arcmin^{-2}. Excluding the two possible groups/clusters and the one apparently stellar object, reduces the surface density to 0.38$\pm 0.15$ arcmin^{-2}.Comment: To appear in the AJ August issue. Replaced with the published versio

Enhancing Science Return During the Rapid Expansion of IRSA

The NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive is undergoing a rapid expansion in the portfolio of missions for which we serve data, including the recent additions of the Spitzer Heritage Archive, the WISE archive, and NASA's Planck archive. This expansion has led to more than an order of magnitude increase in data holdings within a few years, and the inclusion of catalogs up to 10 billion rows. As a result, IRSA has a special opportunity to grow its services to support not only individual IR missions, but to optimize the synergy between them. We discuss the ways in which we enhance the science return from multiple IR data sets, including data discovery, moving object “precovery,” and image cross-comparison

Spitzer 70 Micron Source Counts in GOODS-North

We present ultradeep Spitzer 70 μm observations of GOODS-North (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey). For the first time, the turnover in the 70 μm Euclidean-normalized differential source counts is observed. We derive source counts down to a flux density of 1.2 mJy. From the measured source counts and fluctuation analysis, we estimate a power-law approximation of the faint 70 μm source counts of dN/dS ∝ S^−1.6, consistent with that observed for the faint 24 μm sources. An extrapolation of the 70 μm source counts to zero flux density implies a total extragalactic background light (EBL) of 7.4 ± 1.9 nW m^−2 sr^−1. The source counts above 1.2 mJy account for about 60% of the estimated EBL. From fluctuation analysis, we derive a photometric confusion level of σc = 0.30 ± 0.15 mJy (q = 5) for the Spitzer 70 μm band

Science Validation of the Spitzer Source List

The Spitzer Science Center will produce a source list (SL) of photometry for a large subset of imaging data in the Spitzer Heritage Archive (SHA). The list will enable a large range of science projects. The primary requirement on the SL is very high reliability — with areal coverage, completeness and limiting depth being secondary considerations. The SHA at the NASA Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) will serve the SL as an enhanced data product. The SL will include data from the four channels of IRAC (3–8 microns) and the 24 micron channel of MIPS. The Source List will include image products (mosaics) and photometric data for Spitzer observations of about 1500 square degrees and include around 30 million sources. We describe ongoing science validation of the Spitzer Source List, and discuss the range of use cases which will be supported