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NASA NTRS1989

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) science rationale

SOFIA, a proposed 3-meter class telescope in a Boeing 747 aircraft, would have the ability to make astronomical observations over a wavelength range from 0.3 microns to 1.6mm. Relative to the KAO (Kuiper Airborne Observatory) the larger telescope on SOFIA would provide a factor of 10 improvement in sensitivity for compact sources and a factor of 3 improvement in (diffraction-limited) angular resolution at wavelengths beyond 30 microns. In addition, SOFIA will retain the major features of the KAO which have made the airborne astronomy program so successful. Among these are continuous in-flight access to focal plane instruments while flying at or above 41,000 ft altitude; pointing stability of 0.2 arcseconds; and mobility and scheduling flexibility to accommodate targets of opportunity such as comets, eclipses, occultations, and novae.

Davidson, Jacqueline A.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Effects of desired signal on the performance of a sidelobe canceller

The performance of a sidelobe canceller is studied in a communication system where the desired signal is continually present and its amplitude in the auxiliary antennas may be large (above thermal noise). In such a system, to avoid the cancellation of the desired signal, one can use a reference signal and adjust the auxiliary antenna weights to minimize the error between the reference signal and the sidelobe canceller output or one can use a steering vector. It is shown that in spite of the reference signal or a steering vector, the presence of the desired signal in the auxiliary antennas degrades the interference suppression provided by a sidelobe canceller. The amount of degradation depends on the number of degrees of freedom, the strength of the various signals, and the angular resolution of the auxiliary antenna array. Signal scenarios involving a single interfering signal as well as those involving multiple interfering signals are considered.

Gupta, Inder J.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Formaldehyde absorption toward W51

Formaldehyde (H2CO) absorption toward the H II region complex W51A (G49.5 - 0.4) in the 6 cm and 2 cm wavelength rotational transitions has been measured with angular resolution of about 0.15 pc. The continuum H II region shows a large, previously undetected shell structure 5.5 pc along the major axis. The absorption, converted to optical depth, shows a higher degree of clumping throughout the map than previous maps at lower resolution; in particular, two narrow regions of enhanced opacity are observed. The absorption in the velocity range 64-67 km/s LSR extends over most of the region, with an observed velocity gradient of 5.2 km/s pc. The opacity structure largely parallels the velocity structure, with a ridge of enhanced opacity to the north of the highest velocity feature. The S/N of the maps allows accurate modeling of the spectral profiles. Nine distinct clumps in the foreground clouds have been identified and parametrized, and column densities for the 1(11) and 2(12) rotational levels of orthoformaldehyde have been derived.

Kogut, A.↗

NASA NTRS1990

A balloon borne 19-GHz radiometer

The design and performance of a 19-GHz one-horn maser radiometer is discussed. The antenna is a lensed, conical horn with 3-deg angular resolution. The radiometer is stabilized by chopping against an internal cold load. A novel chopping scheme allows continual calibration of maser gain fluatuations with only a modest penalty in noise. The method of calibrating this instrument is described. The instrument has been used to map the sky with an equivalent blackbody temperature sensitivity of 1 mK per 3 x 3 deg resolution element.

Boughn, S. P.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Passive millimeter-wave imaging - A tool for remote sensing

This paper describes a program of airborne radiometric imaging at 90 GHz and 140 GHz. Using high sensitivity (below 1 K) and high angular resolution (0.5-1.0 degree), high quality images have been made. The following measurements are discussed: cloud and fog penetration at 90 GHz, discrimination between agricultural and urban areas, discrimination between different vegetation types, detection of vehicles on roads, detection and classification of airports and airplanes, ship detection and quantitative oil spill sensing. The application of information enhancement techniques with automatic and real time application aspects is also described, and results of applied techniques for contrast and contour enhancement are shown.

Suess, Helmut↗

NASA NTRS1990

Images of shock-excited molecular hydrogen in young stellar outflows

High-angular resolution molecular hydrogen (H2) v = 1-0 S(1) line images of several well-known molecular outflow sources (DR 21, NGC 2071, HH 7-11, and HH 12) are presented. It is found that all of the outflow sources possess highly collimated jets of shock-excited gas that are extremely clumpy and often consist of bright knots that are placed periodically along the jet axis. The H2 emission-line jets are significantly more collimated than their corresponding CO outflows and remain collimated to large distances from their driving source. In DR 21 and NGC 2071, the H2 jets appear to become more collimated with increasing distance from the central source, suggesting that they are pressure-confined by the ambient cloud medium. In HH 7-11 and HH 12 the shock-excited ionized and molecular components are spatially coincident and appear to be of comparable shape and size; this suggests that the shocked gas is highly mixed on scales significantly smaller than the current spatial resolution.

Garden, Rognvald P.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Calibration and performance of the UCR double Compton gamma ray telescope

Results of the field calibration and performance of the UCR double Compton gamma-ray telescope are presented. The telescope is a balloon-borne instrument with an upper array of 16 plastic scintillator bars and a lower one of 16 NaI(Tl) bars. The telescope is sensitive to celestial gamma rays from 1 to 30 MeV. The data were collected on February 14, 1988 prior to launch in Alice Springs, Australia to observe SN 1987A. Radioactive sources were used to calibrate the energy deposits in the scintillators. Each bar was analyzed laterally using pulse height or timing to obtain the positions of the gamma ray interactions. Double scatter events from an Na-24 source simulating a celestial source were studied to obtain the general performance of the telescope and to develop imaging techniques, later used with the flight data. An angular resolution of 11 deg FWHM and energy resolutions of 13 and 10 percent FWHM at 1.37 and 2.75 MeV, respectively, were found. The efficiency of the telescope is 0.0035 at 1.37 MeV and zenith angle 31 deg.

Ait-Ouamer, Farid↗

NASA NTRS1989

The Pinhole/Occulter Facility

To image X-radiation efficiently at energies above about 10 keV requires the use of 'shadow optics' techniques. The Pinhole/Occulter Facility (P/OF) represents an application of these techniques for observations in high-energy astrophysics, especially the study of solar coronal activity in hard X-rays and gamma rays. P/OF will achieve angular resolutions on the order of 0.2 arcsec for an instrument deployment length of 50 m. Because of this large structural scale, P/OF has been proposed as an attached payload for the Space Station. Meanwhile, several smaller-scale instruments are being developed.

Hudson, Hugh S.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Aperture synthesis CO observations of the inner disk of NGC 1068

NGC 1068 is probably the nearest galaxy with both a high rate of star formation and a high luminosity active nucleus. About one-half of the total IR luminosity originates in a disk approximately 30 seconds in size, which has been taken as evidence for a high rate of massive star formation (Telesco et al. 1984). Previous CO line observations have shown the existence of a ring at the outer boundary of the inner disk (Myers and Scoville 1987). Although these observations have proved that this ring is extremely rich in molecular gas (as suggested by Scoville et al. 1983), the angular resolution (approx. 6 seconds) was not high enough to resolve its structure. New aperture synthesis observations of the CO (J=1 to 0) emission in the inner disk of NGC 1068 have been carried out with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) mm Interferometer. The new receivers installed for the 88/89 season have allowed researchers to obtain a high sensitivity map of the CO emission. The molecular cloud ring has been resolved and continuum as well as line emission from the nucleus of the galaxy have been detected.

Planesas, P.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Spiral structure of M51: Streaming motions across the spiral arms

The atomic hydrogen (HI) and the H alpha emission line in the grand-design spiral galaxy M51 have been observed with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and the Taurus Fabry-Perot imaging spectrometer, respectively. Across the inner spiral arms significant tangential and radial velocity gradients are detected in the H alpha emission after subtraction of the axi-symmetric component of the velocity field. The shift is positive on the inside and negative on the outside of the northern arm. Across the southern arm this situation is reversed. The direction of the shifts is such that the material is moving inward and faster compared to circular rotation in both arms, consistent with the velocity perturbations predicted by spiral density wave models for gas downstream of a spiral shock. The observed shifts amount to 20 to 30 km (s-1), corresponding to streaming motions of 60 to 90 km (s-1) in the plane of the disk (inclination angle 20 degrees). Comparable velocity gradients have also been observed by Vogel et al. in the CO emission from the inner northern arm of M51. The streaming motions in M51 are about 2 to 3 times as large as the ones found in HI by Rots in M81, and successfully modelled by Visser with a self-consistent density wave model. Researchers have not been able to detect conclusively streaming motions in the HI emission from the arms, perhaps due to the relatively poor angular resolution (approx. 15 seconds) of the HI observations.

Tilanus, R. P. J.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Distribution of dust in W31 complex

W31 is a H II region/molecular cloud complex in the galactic plane at a distance of 6 Kpc. This complex consists of two prominent radio continuum sources (G10.2-0.3 and G10.3-0.1) representing H II regions. An extended region covering both these H II regions was mapped in the Far IR (FIR) using the TIFR 1 m balloon-borne telescope with an angular resolution of approx. 1 min and a dynamic range of 100. The resulting flux density distribution at an effective wavelength of 160 microns is presented. The coadded IRAS survey scan data at 60 and 100 microns were deconvolved using a maximum entropy method to generate the flux density maps of the same region. These 60 and 100 micron maps are given and are briefly discussed.

Ghosh, Swarna Kanti↗

NASA NTRS1991

Optical/IR from ground

Optical/infrared (O/IR) astronomy in the 1990's is reviewed. The following subject areas are included: research environment; science opportunities; technical development of the 1980's and opportunities for the 1990's; and ground-based O/IR astronomy outside the U.S. Recommendations are presented for: (1) large scale programs (Priority 1: a coordinated program for large O/IR telescopes); (2) medium scale programs (Priority 1: a coordinated program for high angular resolution; Priority 2: a new generation of 4-m class telescopes); (3) small scale programs (Priority 1: near-IR and optical all-sky surveys; Priority 2: a National Astrometric Facility); and (4) infrastructure issues (develop, purchase, and distribute optical CCDs and infrared arrays; a program to support large optics technology; a new generation of large filled aperture telescopes; a program to archive and disseminate astronomical databases; and a program for training new instrumentalists)

Strom, Stephen↗

NASA NTRS1990

Performance of compact multilayer coated telescopes at soft X-ray/EUV and far ultraviolet wavelengths

Compact soft X-ray/EUV (XUV) and far-ultraviolet (FUV) multilayer coated telescopes have been developed for the study of the solar chromosphere corona and corona/solar wind interface. Because they operate at short wavelengths (between about 40 and 1550 A), the modest apertures of 40 to 127 mm allow observations at very high angular resolution (0.1 to 0.7 arcsec). In addition to permitting traditional normal incidence optical configurations such as Cassegrain, Ritchey-Chretien, and Herschelian to be used at XUV wavelengths, multilayer coatings also allow a narrow wavelength band to be selected for imaging. The resulting telescopes provide a very powerful and flexible diagnostic instrument for the study of both the fine scale structure of the chromosphere/corona interface and the large scale structure of the corona and corona/solar wind interface. A new solar rocket payload, the Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array (MSSTA), composed of 17 of these compact telescopes, was developed. This paper reports on the performance of seven MSSTA Ritchey-Chretien telescopes.

Hoover, Richard B.↗

NASA NTRS1990

The effects of stellar age and metallicity on the infrared emission in the Magellanic Clouds

Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) maps of the Magellanic Clouds smoothed to a 5-min angular resolution and young star catalogs are used to study the effects of stellar age and metallicity on the infrared emission of these galaxies. The construction of the stellar catalog is described, along with the conversion from the observational to the theoretical temperature-luminosity diagram and the derivation of stellar ages. The infrared color-color diagram of the Clouds is investigated, and the effect of stellar age on their infrared emission is investigated. The effects of the UV radiation field and of the metallicity on the infrared emission are also considered with emphasis on the influence of such parameters as gas-to-dust ratio on the infrared colors. It is shown that the far-infrared fluxes of individual pixels in the Clouds' maps follow the same behavior as the integrated emission of normal galaxies in the IRAS color-color diagram and that the precise position of a particular pixel depends on the age of the youngest star in that pixel.

Sauvage, M.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Astrophysics from the moon

Preliminary studies have been conducted for the concept of a lunar base supporting astronomical instruments of power comparable to the VLA, giving attention to aperture-synthesis arrays which could improve angular resolution to the level of a few microarcsec. The only conceivable mode of catastrophic instrument failure envisioned would be a meteorite strike, although the probability for this is small and comparable to that encountered in orbital instruments. Nevertheless, lunar dust may pose problems, lunar soil may be inadequate for support of instrument structures, moonquakes may disturb instruments, gravitational deflection may distort them, and heat radiation and scattered light may exert troublesome influences on observations. Representative parameters for a specific system are presented.

Burke, Bernard F.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Dust properties around evolved stars from far-infrared size limits

High angular resolution far-infrared scans were obtained of six stars surrounded by circumstellar dust shells believed to result from mass loss by the central star. None of the dust shells was clearly resolved at either 50 or 100 microns; the upper limits are in the range 4 to 10 arcsec. These size limits place constraints on the far-IR dust emissivity and dust density distribution. For one of the objects, AFGL 2343, larger than normal grains are almost certainly required. For several other stars, the size limits are much more consistent with dust having an emissivity law no steeper than 1/lambda in the 1-100-micron spectral region. For IRC + 10216, an earlier suggestion is confirmed that, assuming reasonable grain properties, a smooth radial dust distribution is not consistent with the scans and the energy distribution of the object.

Harvey, Paul M.↗

NASA NTRS1991

The Gamma Ray Observatory

The Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), scheduled for launch by the Space Shuttle in April 1991, weighs 35,000 lbs and will offer 10 to 20 times better sensitivity than any previous gamma ray mission. The four instruments aboard GRO are described. The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) will continuously monitor the entire sky for transient gamma-ray events using eight identical, wide-field detectors capable of measuring brightness variations lasting only milliseconds at energies from about 50,000 to 600,000 eV. The Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (OSSE) will make comprehensive observations of discrete sources at energies from 100,000 to 10 million eV, where many radioactive elements have emission lines. The observatory's Imaging Compton Telescope will conduct a deep survey of the entire sky at gamma-ray energies between 1 and 30 MeV. The Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope will cover a broad high-energy spectral range, from about 20 million to 30 billion eV and conduct a sensitive all-sky survey with a wide field of view and good angular resolution.

Kniffen, Donald A.↗

NASA NTRS1991

A complete Arecibo map of H I 1225 + 01

Complete H I observations of a large low-density cloud, H I 1225 + 01, carried out at Arecibo with an angular resolution of 3.3 arcmin, are reported. The velocity field of the H I distribution is analyzed, and tentative models of the overall mass distribution are proposed. The implications of the observations for the structure and evolution of the system are discussed.

Giovanelli, Riccardo↗