Searching for T Dwarfs Within the Spitzer XFLS

One of the main advantages of the Spitzer Space Telescope are the Extragalactic and Galactic First Look Survey (XFLS, FLS) created during the first months of nominal operations. The IRAC instrument, especially, allowed simultaneous observations in multiple bands of these large areas of sky available to the astronomical community. We have decided to exploit the XFLS for a brown dwarf search, as well as the GFLS. In this paper, we report on the progress on our search within the XFLS

Managing the development of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a NASA Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) mission, is surveying the entire sky in four bands from 3.4 to 22 microns with a sensitivity hundreds to hundreds of thousands times better than previous all-sky surveys at these wavelengths. The single WISE instrument consists of a 40 cm three-mirror anastigmatic telescope, a two-stage solid hydrogen cryostat, a scan mirror mechanism, and reimaging optics giving 6" resolution (fullwidth- half-maximum). WISE was placed into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit on a Delta II 7320 launch vehicle on December 14, 2009. NASA selected WISE as a MIDEX in 2002 following a rigorous competitive selection process. To gain further confidence in WISE, NASA extended the development period one year with an option to cancel the mission if certain criteria were not met. MIDEX missions are led by the principal investigator who in this case delegated day-today management to the project manager. With a cost cap and relatively short development schedule, it was essential for all WISE partners to work seamlessly together. This was accomplished with an integrated management team representing all key partners and disciplines. The project was developed on budget and on schedule in spite of the need to surmount significant technical challenges. This paper describes our management approach, key challenges and critical decisions made. Results are described from a programmatic, technical and scientific point of view. Lessons learned are offered for projects of this type

Managing the development of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a NASA Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) mission, is surveying the entire sky in four bands from 3.4 to 22 microns with a sensitivity hundreds to hundreds of thousands times better than previous all-sky surveys at these wavelengths. The single WISE instrument consists of a 40 cm three-mirror anastigmatic telescope, a two-stage solid hydrogen cryostat, a scan mirror mechanism, and reimaging optics giving 6" resolution (fullwidth- half-maximum). WISE was placed into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit on a Delta II 7320 launch vehicle on December 14, 2009. NASA selected WISE as a MIDEX in 2002 following a rigorous competitive selection process. To gain further confidence in WISE, NASA extended the development period one year with an option to cancel the mission if certain criteria were not met. MIDEX missions are led by the principal investigator who in this case delegated day-today management to the project manager. With a cost cap and relatively short development schedule, it was essential for all WISE partners to work seamlessly together. This was accomplished with an integrated management team representing all key partners and disciplines. The project was developed on budget and on schedule in spite of the need to surmount significant technical challenges. This paper describes our management approach, key challenges and critical decisions made. Results are described from a programmatic, technical and scientific point of view. Lessons learned are offered for projects of this type

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance

The all sky surveys done by the Palomar Observatory Schmidt, the European Southern Observatory Schmidt, and the United Kingdom Schmidt, the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite and the 2 Micron All Sky Survey have proven to be extremely useful tools for astronomy with value that lasts for decades. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer is mapping the whole sky following its launch on 14 December 2009. WISE began surveying the sky on 14 Jan 2010 and completed its first full coverage of the sky on July 17. The survey will continue to cover the sky a second time until the cryogen is exhausted (anticipated in November 2010). WISE is achieving 5 sigma point source sensitivities better than 0.08, 0.11, 1 and 6 mJy in unconfused regions on the ecliptic in bands centered at wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns. Sensitivity improves toward the ecliptic poles due to denser coverage and lower zodiacal background. The angular resolution is 6.1, 6.4, 6.5 and 12.0 arc-seconds at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns, and the astrometric precision for high SNR sources is better than 0.15 arc-seconds.Comment: 22 pages with 19 included figures. Updated to better match the accepted version in the A

The First Measurements of Galaxy Clustering from IRAC Data of the Spitzer First Look Survey

We present the first results of the angular auto-correlation function of the galaxies detected by the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) instrument in the First Look Survey (FLS) of the Spitzer Space Telescope. We detect significant signals of galaxy clustering within the survey area. The angular auto-correlation function of the galaxies detected in each of the four IRAC instrument channels is consistent with a power-law form $w(\theta)=A\theta^{1-\gamma}$ out to \theta = 0.2\arcdeg, with the slope ranging from $\gamma = 1.5$ to 1.8. We estimate the correlation amplitudes $A$ to be $2.95 \times 10^{-3}$, $2.03 \times 10^{-3}$, $4.53 \times 10^{-3}$, and $2.34 \times 10^{-3}$ at \theta=1\arcdeg for galaxies detected in the IRAC 3.6$\mu$m, 4.5$\mu$m, 5.8$\mu$m, and 8.0$\mu$m instrument channels, respectively. We compare our measurements at 3.6$\mu$m with the previous K-band measurements, and discuss the implications of these results.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ Supplements Spitzer Special Issue; 12 pages including 3 figures and 1 tabl

The Isophot Observational Modes And Their Pipeline Processing

In this paper we discuss the lessons learnt during the development of the 11 Astronomical Observing Templates (AOTs) of the ISOPHOT instrument and the related pipeline processing software, putting special emphasis on the necessity to take the requirements for a fully automated data reduction already into account when designing the fundamental observing modes and operations of an astronomical satellite like ISO. 1. INTRODUCTION ISOPHOT [Ref. 1] is one of the instruments on board the Infrared Space Observatory ISO [Ref. 2], launched in November 1995 by the European Space Agency. The instrument is capable of performing photometry, spectrophotometry, imaging and polarimetry in the wavelength range between 2.5µm and 240µm. ISO is operated as an observatory, i.e. the astronomers using ISO specify their desired observations in astronomical terms and the uplink software system from this input automatically derives the necessary instrument parameters and command sequences. For ISOPHOT this int..

Should we take patients to hospital in cardiac arrest?

We present deep diffraction-limited far-infrared (FIR) strip maps of a sample of 63 galaxies later than S0 and brighter than BT 16.8, selected from the Virgo Cluster Catalogue of Binggeli, Sandage & Tammann (1985). The ISOPHOT instrument on board the Infrared Space Observatory was used to achieve sensitivities typically an order of magnitude deeper than IRAS in the 60 and 100µm bands and to reach the confusion limit at 170µm. The averaged 3σ upper limits for integrated flux densities of point sources at 60, 100 and 170µm are 43, 33 and 58mJy, respectively. 54 galaxies (85.7%) are detected at least at one wavelength, and 40 galaxies (63.5%) are detected at all three wavelengths. The highest detection rate (85.7%) is in the 170µm band. In many cases the galaxie

Update on the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a NASA MIDEX mission, will survey the entire sky in four bands from 3.3 to 23 microns with a sensitivity 1000 times greater than the IRAS survey. The WISE survey will extend the Two Micron All Sky Survey into the thermal infrared and will provide an important catalog for the James Webb Space Telescope. Using 1024(sup 2) HgCdTe and Si:As arrays at 3.3, 4.7, 12 and 23 microns, WISE will find the most luminous galaxies in the universe, the closest stars to the Sun, and it will detect most of the main belt asteroids larger than 3 km. The single WISE instrument consists of a 40 cm diamond-turned aluminum afocal telescope, a two-stage solid hydrogen cryostat, a scan mirror mechanism, and reimaging optics giving 5 resolution (full-width-half-maximum). The use of dichroics and beamsplitters allows four color images of a 47' x47' field of view to be taken every 8.8 seconds, synchronized with the orbital motion to provide total sky coverage with overlap between revolutions. WISE will be placed into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit on a Delta 7320-10 launch vehicle. The WISE survey approach is simple and efficient. The three-axis-stabilized spacecraft rotates at a constant rate while the scan mirror freezes the telescope line of sight during each exposure. WISE has completed its mission Preliminary Design Review and its NASA Confirmation Review, and the project is awaiting confirmation from NASA to proceed to the Critical Design phase. Much of the payload hardware is now complete, and assembly of the payload will occur over the next year. WISE is scheduled to launch in late 2009; the project web site can be found at www.wise.ssl.berkeley.edu

C II 158 μm Observations of a Sample of Late-Type Galaxies from the Virgo Cluster

We have observed 19 quiescent Virgo cluster spiral galaxies with the Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS) onboard ESAs’ Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), detecting 14 in the [Cii] 157.741 μm fine structure line. Any in.uence of the Virgo cluster environment on the [Cii] emission was found to be small compared with the strong dependence of the line emission on basic measurables such as morphology or bulk mass of the stellar component, as measured by the Near-IR (K’-band) luminosity. While the range of the [Cii]-to-far-IR ratio is less than in other surveys, there is a good correlation between the strength of the [Cii] line and the far-IR flux, as measured by IRAS. We find a trend of increasing [Cii]-to-FIR flux ratio with increasing galaxy lateness. Moreover, the [Cii]-to-K’-band flux ratio shows a two order of magnitude difference between RC3 type 0 and RC3 types later than 5. These two correlations express the relation between the mechanism of the [Cii] emission and the massive star formation activity of the galaxy