Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Clegg, P. E..
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was launched on January 26, 1983. During its 300-day mission, IRAS surveyed over 96 pct of the celestial sphere at four infrared wavelengths, centered approximately at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns. Volume 1 describes the instrument, the mission, and data reduction.
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) mission is described. An overview of the mission, a description of the satellite and its telescope system, and a discussion of the mission design, requirements, and inflight modifications are given. Data reduction, flight tests, flux reconstruction and calibration, data processing, and the formats of the IRAS catalogs and atlases are also considered.
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) consists of a spacecraft and a liquid helium cryostat that contains a cooled IR telescope. The telescope's focal plane assembly is cooled to less than 3 K, and contains 62 IR detectors in the survey array which are arranged so that every source crossing the field of view can be seen by at least two detectors in each of four wavelength bands. The satellite was launched into a 900 km-altitude near-polar orbit, and its cryogenic helium supply was exhausted on November 22, 1983. By mission's end, 72 percent of the sky had been observed with three or more hours-confirming scans, and 95 percent with two or more hours-confirming scans. About 2000 stars detected at 12 and 25 microns early in the mission, and identified in the SAO (1966) catalog, have a positional uncertainty ellipse whose axes are 45 x 9 arcsec for an hours-confirmed source.
Before the main Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) all-sky survey was started, a preliminary survey of 900 sq deg was carried out. Some results from this 'minisurvey' are given here. The completeness of the minisurvey at galactic latitudes from 20 to 40 deg drops sharply at flux densities below 0.4, 0.4, 0.5, and 2.5 Jy at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns, respectively. The corresponding surface densities of point sources brighter than these flux levels are 1.1, 0.4, 0.65, and 1.25/sq deg, respectively. Outside the galactic plane, the majority of the sources at 12 and 25 microns are stars, while galaxies make up a significant proportion of 60 micron sources. The 100 micron band is dominated by emission from interstellar dust over much of the minisurvey area.
Maps of M31 have been obtained at wavelengths of 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns. Emission is detected from the center and from a ring of 50 arcmin radius. The ring is that also seen in H I, in H II, and in radio continuum radiation. The spectrum of the central emission suggests a hotter dust temperature than in the ring. M31 is a weak infrared source, the radiation measured longward of 12 microns being only 3 percent of its total luminosity. The two closest companion galaxies, M32 and NGC 205, have also been detected.
Nine bright, point-like 60 micron sources have been selected from the sample of 8709 sources in the IRAS minisurvey. These sources have no counterparts in a variety of catalogs of nonstellar objects. Four objects have no visible counterparts, while five have faint stellar objects visible in the error ellipse. These sources do not resemble objects previously known to be bright infrared sources.
A preliminary discussion of the infrared properties of a representative subsample of galaxies in the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog (B less than about 13 mag) is presented. Of the 165 galaxies in the sample, 108 predominantly spiral galaxies, are detected in the infrared by IRAS. None of the elliptical galaxies and only about 25 percent of the lenticular galaxies scanned were detected. The range of infrared-to-blue luminosity ratios, a measure of the infrared excess of galaxies, is large, varying from roughly 0.1 to roughly 5. The data suggest that weakly infrared emitting galaxies are cool (100-60 micron color temperatures of about 25 K), while the more infrared luminous ones tend to be warmer (about 50 K). The rate of star formation in barred spiral galaxies is apparently higher than in normal spirals. About 1 solar mass/year of interstellar matter is converted into massive stars in the typical spiral galaxy.
A total of 86 galaxies have been detected at 60 microns in the high galactic latitude portion of the IRAS minisurvey. The surface density of detected galaxies with flux densities greater than 0.5 Jy is 0.25 sq deg. Virtually all the galaxies detected are spiral galaxies and have an infrared to blue luminosity ratio ranging from 50 to 0.5. For the infrared-selected sample, no obvious correlation exists between infrared excess and color temperature. The infrared flux from 10 to 100 microns contributes approximately 5 percent of the blue luminosity for galaxies in the magnitude range 14 less than m(pg) less than 18 mag. The fraction of interacting galaxies is between one-eighth and one-fourth of the sample.
A total of 41 sources have been detected at 60 microns to a level of 50 mJy in a 1.6 x 0.5 deg field centered on the rich galaxy cluster Abell 2151. Twenty-four of these sources can be identified with late-type spiral galaxies of estimated photographic magnitude 17 or brighter. Galaxies classified as E or S0 are notably absent in the infrared data. Within the field, eleven of the IRAS sources cannot be easily identified with galaxies in the Hercules Cluster. If the brightest 60 micron cluster source (NGC 6045) is neglected, the integral luminosity function in the far-infrared can be fitted well with two power laws of slope -1.1 and -2.5.
Observations from 12 to 100 microns are presented of two radio-quiet and three radio-loud quasars. Over this wavelength range, all five have grossly similar continuum energy distributions. The continua of the radio-loud quasars are consistent with synchrotron radiation. There is an indication, however, of excess 100 micron emission in the two radio-quiet quasars.
The first detection of 3C 273 (1226 + 023) at wavelengths of 107, 240, and 400 microns together with contemporary measurements at 800 microns, 1.1, 1.9, 3.3, and 8.9 mm, is reported. These observations show that the continuum spectrum of 3C 273 can be extrapolated smoothly from the submillimeter to the infrared with a constant spectral index. There is no evidence of thermal emission from dust. It is shown that the spectrum is consistent with optically thin synchrotron emission from a relativistic beam at a small angle to the line of sight.
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), to be launched in the autumn of 1981, is expected to reveal much that is new and exciting. The paper discusses the design features and performance of IRAS, illustrates the meaning of this performance in terms of known phenomena, and stipulates how it may extrapolate to the early universe. The ability of IRAS to observe the universe at large redshift is examined.
Apollo 11 rocks IR absorption properties, specific heat and thermal conductivity, discussing heat flow in surface layer