Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) Scientific Data Analysis System

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Scientific Data Analysis System will process Infrared Astronomical Satellite data and produce a catalog of perhaps a million infrared sources in the sky, as well as other vital information for astronomical research

Research in planetary Astronomy

The focus was on the study, via near infrared observations, of the outer planets and their satellites. In the last year, these observations have emphasized imaging observations using the Cassegrain infrared camera at the f/70 focus of the 200 inch Hale telescope

The Auslander conjecture for dimension less than 7

In 1967 L. Auslander conjectured that every crystallographic subgroup of an affine group is virtually solvable, i.e. contains a solvable subgroup of finite index. D. Fried and W. Goldman proved Auslander's conjecture for affine space of dimension 3 using cohomological arguments. Using dynamical arguments we prove the Auslander conjecture for dimension less than 7.Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to corrections. We added acknowledgement

Research at Palomar Observatory in planetary astronomy

A wide range of observational studies are carried out to improve our understanding of the bodies of the outer solar system. Using the 200-inch Hale telescope, near-infrared observations are made of Uranus, Neptune, and the Pluto-Charon system. High time resolution occultation observations of the Uranus Ring system are used to study in detail the dynamics of this system. Occultation studies of Neptune are probing this intriguing ring-arc system. Occulation observations of the Pluto-Charon system probe the surface properties of these distant bodies. In addition, the plate material of the PSSII servey is being used to search for new comets and asteroids. Researchers observed one Neptune stellar occultation in July 1987 and completed the analysis of a series of seven separate Neptune occultation observations in conjunction with Nicholson et al., of Cornell. The analysis has shown that minimum of three ring arcs, at radii ranging from 54,000 km - 67,000 km are required to account for the high quality ring events. Current theoretical models can account for these data. Of two observations scheduled of Pluto-Charon mutual occulations scheduled for the 200-inch, the Charon eclipse event was successfully observed (the other was clouded out)

The Spitzer view of the extragalactic universe

The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched in August 2003. Scientists from around the world have applied its orders-of-magnitude gain in imaging and spectroscopic capability to a wide array of topics in extragalactic research. Spitzer studies have found massive galaxies at redshifts greater than 6, resolved the cosmic background at 200 μm > λ > 20 μm into the dusty infrared-luminous galaxies that comprise it, directly detected dust-enshrouded star formation, and measured the star formation history of the universe to z > 3. In this review we examine a small fraction of the extragalactic studies from Spitzer that have been conducted in its first three years of operations

High Resolution WFPC2 Imaging of IRAS 09104+4109

With a infrared luminosity of nearly 10^13 Lsuns, IRAS 09104+4109 is the most luminous galaxy with z<0.5 in the IRAS All Sky Survey. A radio-loud Seyfert 2 type optical spectrum, a cD host galaxy in a rich cluster, and a massive cooling flow make IRAS 09104+4109 unique among ultraluminous infrared galaxies. Cannibalized cluster members and the cooling intercluster medium may contribute both the fuel and the dust needed to re-radiate the power of IRAS 09104+4109 into the far-infrared. We have imaged IRAS 09104+4109 in the WFPC2 F622W, F814W, and FR680N filters on the HST to obtain rest frame 4300A, 5700A, and [OIII] emission line images on sub-kpc scales. IRAS 09104+4109 displays a complex morphology on the smallest scales, with radiating filaments, an asymmetric [OIII] nebula, and a number of very faint, irregular blue objects surrounding the cD galaxy. We discuss the nature and possible interplay between the enshrouded QSO nucleus, the cD host galaxy and the irregular cluster.Comment: LaTex, 6 pages with 2 postscript and 1 jpg figure. To appear in the proc. of the Ringberg workshop "Ultraluminous Galaxies: Monsters or Babies" (Ringberg castle, Sept. 1998), Ap&SS, in pres

14 years of Spitzer publications: data use and reuse

After 14 years of operations, the Spitzer Space Telescope has over 7800 refereed publications, which are catalogued in the Spitzer Bibliographical Database. After depleting the cryogen onboard in 2009 observatory operations were altered in order to run the mission on a budget totaling less than 1/3 that of the cryogenic mission. These changes included decreasing the number of approved science programs and funding to the community while encouraging very large programs (<1000 hours). We present here insights on how Spitzer's operational changes have altered how people publish the data, and present metrics about data use and re-usage for the entire mission in published papers. Spitzer is a community driven observatory and our observing programs vary in number of hours and number of observations depending on the science, and so a comparison between various methods of presenting publication statistics is discussed