Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Dec 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000aas...197.1409l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 197th AAS Meeting, #14.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.1426
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
1
Scientific paper
The NAS Decade Report on Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium recommends a Single-Aperture Far InfraRed (SAFIR) Observatory as a major new initiative for this decade, and further urges NASA to invest in technologies for infrared interferometry. Thanks to community support, SAFIR (or FAIR, for Filled-Aperture IR telescope, as it is sometimes called), the Space Infrared Interferometric Telescope (SPIRIT), and the Submillimeter Probe of the Evolution of Cosmic Structure (SPECS) were added to the NASA roadmap. SAFIR and FAIR are large filled-aperture telescopes, whereas SPIRIT and SPECS are Michelson imaging and spectral interferometers. We present the results of a study of the scientific capabilities of various hypothetical versions of SAFIR, FAIR, SPIRIT, and SPECS, and the technical issues that will be confronted in each case. At wavelengths longer than 50 microns, the filled-aperture telescopes very quickly reach confusion limits. Such telescopes could be used to survey large areas or make high-resolution spectroscopic observations in the far-IR, or make deep observations at the mid-IR wavelengths inaccessible to NGST. Neither SPIRIT (maximum baseline length 30 - 50 m) nor SPECS (maximum baseline 1 km) will reach extragalactic source or cirrus confusion limits. In observing times ranging from several hours to several days, the interferometers are about as sensitive as confusion-limited filled-aperture telescopes at wavelengths longward of 100 microns, and sufficiently sensitive to make detailed astrophysical measurements of galaxies going back to the epoch of their formation.
Blain Andrew W.
Langer William D.
Leisawitz David
Mather John C.
Moseley Samuel Harvey
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