Notes
Slide Show
Outline
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Advantages of Space
  • Different phenomena produce different wavelength light
    • Ordinary stars:  Mostly Visible light
    • Cool planets or dust clouds:  Infrared light
    • Moving charged particles, cool molecules:  Radio/millimeter waves
    • Very hot objects:  X-Rays and Gamma Rays
    • Quasars: ALL wavelengths





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Disadvantages of the Ground
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Advantages of Space

  • Also, there is no atmospheric turbulence, and telescopes can be pointed very accurately and precisely.  This provides good, stable images.



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Space-Based Astronomy
  • NASA’s suite of “Great Observatories”
    • The Hubble Space Telescope
    • The Spitzer Space Telescope
    • The Chandra X-ray Observatory
    • (“Deceased”: The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory)
  • Other missions: XMM-Newton (w/ESA), FUSE, Galex, WMAP, many others
  • Future: James Webb Space Telescope, Astro-E2, SNAP, TPF, GLAST, Swift, LISA, Constellation-X


  • Technical phrase is “Lots and lots and lots.”


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Hubble Vital Statistics
  • HST is in Low Earth Orbit (~600 km)
  • Primary is 2.4 meters
  • Launched in 1990
  • “Regularly serviced”
  • Cost ~$2+ billion
  • Suite of changing instruments
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The Hubble Deep Field
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Hubble’s Uncertain Future
  • Jan. 2004, NASA Director Sean O’Keefe announced it was too dangerous to service HST with a shuttle mission (no aborts).
  • Without regular service, HST will fail
    • Gyroscopes & Orbital Decay
  • Service also provides upgrades
    • Computers!  Solar panels, etc.
    • Instruments!  STIS just failed.
  • Waiting on the “Next Generation” Space Telescope (NGST) renamed the James Webb Telescope (more later)
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Chandra X-ray Observatory
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The Highest Tech Mirrors Ever!
  • Chandra is the first X-ray telescope to have image as sharp as optical telescopes.
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A “Type 2” Hidden Quasar
  • Left: Chandra, X-rays.  Right: optically normal galaxy.
  • X-rays can penetrate obscuring gas/dust.
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Tycho’s Supernova Remnant
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A Multiwavelength Look at Cygnus A
  • A merger-product, and powerful radio galaxy.
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Crab Nebula Movie
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Combining HST and Chandra:
The Crab Pulsar Wind
  • Chandra on the left, Hubble on the right.
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Another HST, Chandra Combo
  • Galactic Winds get “Supersized” in NGC 3079
  • Nuclear starbursts and their resulting supernovas blow hot gas out from the core
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XMM-Newton
  • ESA lead X-ray mission.
  • Resolution, is good, but not Chandra Good
  • Sensitivity and field of view are better.
  • Great for surveys and observations of, e.g., Galaxy Clusters
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The Power of the Infrared
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Spitzer Space Telescope
  • Heir to 1980s IRAS mission.
  • Mid to far IR.
  • Only 60 cm, Earth-trailing orbit, 5 year lifetime.
  • Imaging and mid-R spectroscopy.
  • DUST is important!
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Spitzer Space Telescope
  • Dust, in the optical, HIDES light.
  • Dust in the mid/far infrared RADIATES light.
  • Star-forming regions look different, inverted in the infrared!
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Spitzer Space Telescope
  • Discovered by a Wyoming grad student and professor.  The “Cowboy Cluster” – an overlooked Globular Cluster.
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Kepler’s Supernova with all three of NASA’s Great Observatories
  • Just 400 years ago:         (Oct. 9, 1604)
  • Then a bright, naked eye object (no telescopes)
  • It’s still blowing up – now 14 light years wide and expanding at 4 million mph.
  • There’s material there at MANY temperatures, so many wavelengths are needed to understand it.
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FUSE
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FUSE
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Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
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Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
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The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission
(Scheduled launch: November 8, 2004)
  • Gamma-Ray/X-ray Burst localizer
  • Will provide good, fast spatial coordinates for afterglow studies
  • Enigmatic sources, GRBs, and will help us figure out what they are (some are supernovas, but not all).
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Terrestrial Planet Finder
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James Webb Space Telescope
  • More than twice the diameter of Hubble.
  • Optimized for the red and infrared.
  • Designed to study first stars, high-z universe.
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Multi-wavelength Astronomy
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A Shameless Plug to Display during Q&A…