Download Modern Day astronomical tools

MODERN DAY
ASTRONOMICAL TOOLS
RADIO TELESCOPES
 What
Are Radio Telescopes?
 We
use radio telescopes to study naturally-occurring
radio light from stars, galaxies, black holes, and other
astronomical objects. We can also use them to
transmit and reflect radio light off of planetary bodies
in our solar system.
 Radio
telescopes are built in all shapes and sizes
based on the kind of radio waves they pick up.
However, every radio telescope has an antenna on a
mount and at least one piece of receiver equipment
to detect the signals.
RADIO TELESCOPES
Why We Use Arrays
The ability of a radio telescope to distinguish fine detail in the sky, called angular
resolution, depends on the wavelength of observations divided by the size of the
antenna.
Combine the views of a group of antennas spread over a large area to operate
together as one gigantic telescope.
Many astronomical objects are not only observable in visible light but also emit
radiation at radio wavelengths. Besides observing energetic objects such as pulsars
and quasars, radio telescopes are able to "image" most astronomical objects such
as galaxies, nebulae, and even radio emissions from planets.
SPACE TELESCOPES
NASA's series of Great Observatories satellites are four large,
powerful space-based telescopes. The four missions were designed to
examine a specific region of the electromagnetic spectrum using very
different technologies. Dr. Charles Pellerin, NASA's Director,
Astrophysics invented and developed the program.
Hubble Space Telescope / NASA, ESA / 1990 /
Visible, UV, Near-IR / Deep Space Objects
The granddaddy of space telescopes, Hubble has been observing
from Earth orbit for more than 25 years. Hubble, the first of NASA's
Great Observatories, has revolutionized astronomy, providing
stunning images of countless cosmic objects and giving
astronomers their most distant views of the universe with the Hubble
Deep Field and Ultra Deep Field. Hubble has shed light on the scale
of the universe, the life cycle of stars, black holes, and the formation
of the first galaxies. Currently receiving its fifth and final makeover,
Hubble is expected to last at least another five years, hopefully
overlapping with its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope.
Chandra X-ray Observatory / NASA / 1999 / X-ray / Various
The third of NASA's four Great Observatories, Chandra is the world's most
powerful X-ray telescope. Chandra, named for Indian-American physicist
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, examines the X-rays emitted by some of the
universe's strangest objects, including quasars, immense clouds of gas and dust
and particles sucked into black holes. X-rays are produced when matter is heated
to millions of degrees. Chandra has teamed up several times with other
telescopes, including Hubble, to take composite images of galaxies and other
denizens of the cosmos. It has found previously hidden black holes, provided
observations of the Milky Way's own supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*,
and even taken the first X-ray images of Mars.
Spitzer Space Telescope / NASA / 2003 /
IR / Distant and Nearby Objects
Spitzer was the last of the Great Observatories to be launched
and gathers the infrared radiation emanating from cosmic
objects, including faraway galaxies, black holes and even comets
in our own solar system. (Infrared radiation is hard to observe
from the ground because it is largely absorbed by the Earth's
atmosphere.) Spitzer was the first telescope to see light from an
exoplanet, which it was not originally designed to see; it took the
temperatures of so-called "hot Jupiters" and found that not all of
them are really hot. Spitzer has used the last of the liquid helium
coolant that has kept its instruments chilled. Spitzer's instruments
will be able to keep going for another two years, meanwhile, the
European Space Agency's Herschel telescope is designed to
pick up where Spitzer left off.
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO)
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was a space observatory detecting light from
20 keV to 30 GeV in Earth orbit from 1991 to 2000. It featured four main telescopes in one spacecraft,
covering X-rays and gamma rays
Costing $617 million, the CGRO was part of NASA's "Great Observatories" series, along with
the Hubble Space Telescope, theChandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space
Telescope. It was the second of the series to be launched into space, following the Hubble
Space Telescope.
After one of its 3 gyroscopes failed in December 1999, the observatory was deliberately deorbited. At the time, the observatory was still operational; however the failure of another
gyroscope would have made de-orbiting much more difficult and dangerous. With some
controversy, NASA decided in the interest of public safety that a controlled crash was
preferable to letting the craft come down on its own at random. Unlike the Hubble Space
Telescope, it was not designed for on-orbit repair and refurbishment. It entered the Earth's
atmosphere on 4 June 2000, with the debris that did not burn up ("six 1,800-pound aluminum Ibeams and parts made of titanium, including more than 5,000 bolts") falling harmlessly into the
Pacific Ocean.[7]
This de-orbit was NASA's first intentional controlled de-orbit of a satellite.
Herschel Space Observatory / ESA & NASA / 2009 / Far-IR / Various
Planck Observatory / ESA / 2009 / Microwave / Cosmic Microwave Background
Kepler Mission / NASA / 2009 / Visible / Extrasolar planets
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope / NASA / 2008 / Gamma-ray / Various
Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer / NASA / 2004 / Gamma ray, X-ray, UV, Visible /
Various
GALEX / NASA / 2003 / UV / Galaxies
Solar & Heliospheric Observatory / NASA & ESA / 1995 / Optical-UV, Magnetic /
Sun and Solar Wind
STEREO / NASA / 2006 / Visible, UV, Radio / Sun and Coronal Mass Ejections
FLYING OBSERVATORIES
The first use of an aircraft for performing infrared observations
was in 1965 when Gerard P. Kuiper used the NASA Convair 990
to study Venus. Three years later, Frank Low used the Ames
Learjet for observations of Jupiter and nebulae. In 1969,
planning began for mounting a 36-inch (910 mm) telescope on
an airborne platform. The goal was to perform astronomy from
the stratosphere, where there was a much lower optical
depth from water-vapor-absorbed infrared radiation. This
project, named the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, was
dedicated on May 21, 1975. The telescope was instrumental in
numerous scientific studies, including the discovery of the ring
system around the planet Uranus.[19]
Early airborne observatories – mostly for solar eclipse studies
• 1923
– Navy FL-5 flying boat
• 1930 – Vought O2U-1
• 1945 – Spitfire, Mitchell, Ansons
• 1948 – B-29s in Aleutians
• 1954 – Lincoln 30,000 feet
• 1963 – First jets
Learjet Observatory (LJO)
1968–1997 • 11.8 in (30-centimeter) telescope
KUIPER AIRBORNE OBSERVATORY
(KAO)
 High-flying
aircraft -above 40,000 ft -can observe most of
the infrared universe
 Airborne
NASA’s Kuiper Airborne Observatory
(KAO) C-141 with a 36-inch telescope
onboard, based at NASA-Ames near
San Francisco, flew from 1975 - 1995
,
infrared
telescopes can be
more versatile -and much less
expensive -than space infrared
telescopes
Kuiper Airborne
Observatory (KAO)
• 1,424 astronomy
research flights
• 600 investigators
• 1,000+ scientific
& technical
papers
• 50 Ph.D. theses
1974–1995 • 36-inch (91.4-centimeter) telescope
SOFIA--THE NEXT GENERATION
AIRBORNE OBSERVATORY
• 2.5-meter (100-inch) telescope
in a Boeing 747SP
• Based at NASA-Dryden’s
Aircraft Ops Facility in
Palmdale, with Science Center
at NASA-Ames
• 120+ 8-hour research flights per year; 20 year lifetime
• 20% share with the German space agency DLR
• The world’s largest portable telescope!
• Useful for both visible and infrared research
• 1+ month per year in southern hemisphere
• First test flights in 2007, first science flights in 2010
SOFIA is based on a Boeing 747SP wide-body aircraft that
has been modified to include a large door in the
aft fuselage that can be opened in flight to allow a 2.5 meter
diameter reflecting telescope access to the sky. This
telescope is designed for infrared astronomy observations in
the stratosphere at altitudes of about 41,000 feet (12 km).
SOFIA's flight capability allows it to rise above almost all of
the water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere, which blocks some
infrared wavelengths from reaching the ground. At the
aircraft's cruising altitude, 85% of the full infrared range will be
available. The aircraft can also travel to almost any point on
the Earth's surface, allowing observation from the northern
and southern hemispheres.
SOFIA’s
“First Light”
Image of Jupiter
May, 2010
SOFIA observations of a stellar
occultation by Pluto on July 23,
2011

Dwarf planet Pluto (V ~ 14) occulted a star (V ~ 14.4).

SOFIA met the shadow of Pluto in mid-Pacific.

HIPO (Lowell Obs.) and FDC (DSI) instruments
=>
observed the occultation simultaneously.
Image sequence from the Fast Diagnostic Camera (FDC)
FDC
Pluto (circled) is 13 arcsec
from the star 200 minutes
before the occultation
Just before occultation: Pluto
During occultation: Pluto and star
and star merged, combined light merged, only Pluto light seen
After occultation: Pluto and
star merged, combined light