1 / 29

The Far-Infrared Universe: from the Universe’s oldest light to the birth of its youngest stars

Explore the potential of far-infrared observations in studying star and planetary formation. This article discusses the science drivers, advances in FIR technology, and the importance of observations in FIR bands. Topics covered include star formation, galaxy evolution, molecular hydrogen, cosmic microwave background, and more.

ckato
Download Presentation

The Far-Infrared Universe: from the Universe’s oldest light to the birth of its youngest stars

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Far-Infrared Universe:from the Universe’s oldest light to the birth of its youngest stars Jeremy P. Scott, on behalf of Locke D. Spencer Physics and Astronomy, University of Lethbridge CAP Congress 2015, University of Alberta June 17, 2015

  2. Contents • The Far Infrared • Planck • Herschel/SPIRE • Interferometry • Future Work Image: ESA-CNES-Arianespace

  3. Introduction FIR observations offer great potential in the study of star and planetary formation • Observations in the Far-IR (FIR) allow investigation of key science questions of star formation and galaxy evolution. • Success of Spitzer and Herschel, and expectations for ALMA and JWST, stress the need for observations in the FIR FIR CMB NIR/VIS Blain et al. 2002, Helmich and Ivison 2009

  4. Science Drivers Advances in FIR astronomy from within our own galaxy to cosmological studies Protoplanetary discs and planet formation Resolving snow line (liquid/ice regions), water dynamics, dust structure / dynamics Star Formation ISM structure and IMF, High mass star formation rate, molecular tracers (H2O, CO, …), pre-stellar core / filament dynamics Nearby Universe Galaxy dust budget (~low mass vs. supernovae ejecta), dust heating, formation of massive stars, AGN / host galaxy relations Evolving Universe Most of the observable universe is feature-rich in FIR bands (84%), star formation history, black hole accretion and growth Early Universe Molecular hydrogen, cosmic microwave background All of these areas are very well served by advances in FIR technology and observations! Near/ Small Far/ Large

  5. Why space? Image: NASA

  6. Herschel and Planck: Europe’s Cosmic Explorers

  7. M31 – the Andromeda Galaxy In optical light (390-700 nm) In infrared light (24 µm) Far-Infrared (Herschel 250-500µm) Images: NOAO, NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Gordon (Arizona) Spitzer, Herschel

  8. All sky (visible) DSS www.chromoscope.net

  9. All-sky (microwave) Planck

  10. The sky as seen by Planck Images: ESA

  11. Component Maps

  12. The 2013 Planck Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature Map Image: ESA

  13. …And Polarization

  14. Star formation in Aquila Planck + IRAS 100/350/540 mm

  15. Herschel 70/160/500 mm Planck + IRAS 100/350/540 mm

  16. Star formation in Aquila Please see my poster tomorrow (Scott et al. DASP poster session, 17 June 2015)

  17. SPIRE FTS Imaging and Spectroscopy Spencer et al. in prep

  18. SPIRE FTS Frequency Calibration

  19. Decadal plan for astronomy from the Canadian Astronomy Community • (2010-2020) • http://www.casca.ca/lrp2010/ • Two FIR/submm recommendations • Cooled apertures (increased sensitivity) • Interferometry (increased spatial resolution)

  20. Angular Resolution FIR gap YSO disk at 140 pc

  21. YSO disk at 140 pc

  22. YSO disk at 140 pc Simulated JWST deep field

  23. Interferometer Baseline/l, u, v Fourier Spectrometer Optical path difference, z Interferometer Theory

  24. Spectral / Spatial Interferometer Spectral Resolution ~1/(2Zmax) Angular Resolution ~l/B The spectral and spatial properties of the source are obtained through spectral/spatial Fourier transformation of the observed signal Nyquist and Cittert-Zernike sampling conditions allow lossless spectral/spatial hyperspectral image reconstruction

  25. Conclusions • With imaging FTS: Per pixel

  26. Conclusions • With spatial/spectral double Fourier: Per pixel

  27. Current Status / Future Work • Working to set up a FIR spatial/spectral interferometry instrument at U of L • develop observing and data processing techniques and extend FTS processing to FIRI-like applications • In parallel with international collaborations • Working on current FIR astrophysics instruments and research/science programs • E.g., Herschel, Planck, BETTII, EBEX,SCUBA-2 • Working on future-generation instrumentation and technologies • E.g., SPICA, FIRI/FISICA

  28. Thank you! Please direct inquiries to: Locke.Spencer@uLeth.ca

More Related