The vibrational overtone spectrum of liquid methane in the visible and near infrared: Applications to planetary studies

The strengths of 10 bands in the absorption spectrum of liquid methane betwen 19 400 and 6190 Å have been measured. After a small correction for the polarizability of the liquid is applied, for the purpose of comparison with similar gas phase measurements, it is found that there is no temperature dependence of the band strengths between 95 and 295°K. Changes of band shape with temperature cause the 95°K laboratory spectra to resemble Saturn more than room temperature observations do. Gas phase absorption clearly dominates the liquid in planetary spectra, so liquid methane cannot be detected in the outer Solar System by Earth-based observations.     

The near infrared nightglow continuum

New measurements of the nightglow continuum near 8500 Å show the brightness to be comparable with that in the visible and to be below 1 R/A; there does not appear to be the marked increase of intensity with wavelength assumed in some recent theoretical treatments.     

The near infrared nightglow continuum

A review is given of observations of the nightglow continuum extending from about 7000 Å to longer wavelengths. It is suggested that the source of this emission is radiative association of atomic oxygen via the repulsive ${}^3\text{Π}{}_{\mathrm{u}}$ state to vibrationally excited O₂(³Σ_g^?). Predicted spectra are compared with nightglow and laboratory observations. Other implications for the physics of the thermosphere and upper mesosphere are discussed.     

The evolution from visible to infrared variable AGB stars

Results of the Vassiliadis and Wood (1993) model for the evolution on the AGB are used to study how DENIS can complement an optical and IRAS based study of Long Period Variable AGB stars in a field towards the galactic bulge.     

Nifte: The near infrared faint-object telescope experiment

The high sensitivity of large format InSb arrays can be used to obtain deep images of the sky at 3–5 m. In this spectral range cool or highly redshifted objects (e.g. brown dwarfs and protogalaxies) which are not visible at shorter wavelengths may be observed. Sensitivity at these wavelengths in ground-based observations is severely limited by the thermal flux from the telescope and from the earth's atmosphere. The Near Infrared Faint-Object Telescope Experiment (NIFTE), a 50 cm cooled rocket-borne telescope combined with large format, high performance InSb arrays, can reach a limiting flux < 1 Jy (1) over a large field-of-view in a single flight. In comparison, ISO will require days of observation to reach a sensitivity more than one order of magnitude worse over a similar area of the sky. The deep 3–5 m images obtained by the rocket-borne telescope will assist in determining the nature of faint red objects detected by ground-based telescopes at 2 m, and by ISO at wavelengths longer than 5 m.     

EChO spectra and stellar activity II. The case of dM stars

EChO is a dedicated mission to investigate exoplanetary atmospheres. When extracting the planetary signal, one has to take care of the variability of the hosting star, which introduces spectral distortion that can be mistaken as planetary signal. Magneticvariability has to be taken into account in particular for M stars. To this purpose, assuming a one spot dominant model for the stellar photosphere, we develop a mixed observational-theoretical tool to extract the spot’s parameters from the observed optical spectrum. This method relies on a robust library of spectral M templates, which we derive using the observed spectra of quiet M dwarfs in the SDSS database. Our procedure allows to correct the observed spectra for photospheric activity in most of the analyzed cases, reducing the spectral distortion down to the noise levels. Ongoing refinements of the template library and the algorithm will improve the efficiency of our algorithm.     

The gaia survey contribution to EChO target selection and characterization

The scientific output of the proposed EChO mission (in terms of spectroscopic characterization of the atmospheres of transiting extrasolar planets) will be maximized by a careful selection of targets and by a detailed characterization of the main physical parameters (such as masses and radii) of both the planets and their stellar hosts. To achieve this aim, the availability of high-quality data from other space-borne and ground-based programs will play a crucial role. Here we identify and discuss the elements of the Gaia catalogue that will be of utmost relevance for the selection and characterization of transiting planet systems to be observed by the proposed EChO mission.     

The near infrared spectrophotometer for the 182 cm Asiago telescope

A new near infrared spectrophotometer has been built for the Asiago 182 cm telescope. The instrument performs both large band JHKLM photometry and 1–5 spectrophotometry; a tracking system on a field star allows closed loop mapping. The design and performances are discussed.     

EChO payload electronics architecture and SW design

EChO is a three-modules (VNIR, SWIR, MWIR), highly integrated spectrometer, covering the wavelength range from 0.55 μ m to 11.0 μ m. The baseline design includes the goal wavelength extension to 0.4 μ m while an optional LWIR module extends the range to the goal wavelength of 16.0 μ m. An Instrument Control Unit (ICU) is foreseen as the main electronic subsystem interfacing the spacecraft and collecting data from all the payload spectrometers modules. ICU is in charge of two main tasks: the overall payload control (Instrument Control Function) and the housekeepings and scientific data digital processing (Data Processing Function), including the lossless compression prior to store the science data to the Solid State Mass Memory of the Spacecraft. These two main tasks are accomplished thanks to the Payload On Board Software (P-OBSW) running on the ICU CPUs.     

The earliest stages of massive star formation: near and mid infrared observations

We present new near-IR and mid-IR images of relatively isolated massive star forming regions with a special emphasis on the candidate precursors to ultra-compact HII regions. These images reveal compact, almost circularly symmetric young stellar clusters, dominated by a single luminous massive member. The clusters indicate flattened structures and dynamically unrelaxed states. In 4 of these young clusters we have discovered a nearly centrally located, prominent dark region visible at 2μm. 10μm images show examples where the dark region is associated with embedded luminous members of the cluster, as well as cases with no central 10μm source. The dark patches without embedded sources could be dense cores surviving inside the (proto?)clusters or left over wreckage from cluster formation. These images support current theoritical simulations of cluster formation.     

Ground-based near infrared spectroscopy of Jupiter's ring and moons

The backscattered reflectivity of Jupiter's ring has been previously measured over distinct visible and near infrared wavelength bands by a number of ground-based and spaceborne instruments. We present spectra of Jupiter's main ring from 2.21-2.46 μm taken with the NIRSPEC spectrometer at the W.M. Keck observatory. At these wavelengths, scattered light from Jupiter is minimal due to the strong absorption of methane in the planet's atmosphere. We find an overall flat spectral slope over this wavelength interval, except for a possible red slope shortward of 2.25 μm. We extended the spectral coverage of the ring to shorter wavelengths by adding a narrow-band image at 1.64 μm, and show results from 2.27-μm images over phase angles of 1.2°-11.0°. Our images at 1.64 and 2.27 μm reveal that the halo contribution is stronger at the shorter wavelength, possibly due to the redder spectrum of the ring parent bodies as compared with the halo dust component. We find no variation in main ring reflectivity over the 1.2°-11.0° phase angle range at 2.27 μm. We use adaptive optics imaging at the longer wavelength L′ band (3.4-4.1 μm) to determine a 2-σ upper limit of 22 m of vertically-integrated I/F. Our observing campaign also produced an L′ image of Callisto, showing a darker leading hemisphere, and a spectrum of Amalthea over the 2.2-2.5 and 2.85-3.03 μm ranges, showing deep 3-μm absorption.     

Optical properties of solid and liquid sulfur at visible and infrared wavelengths

Knowledge of the optical constants of elemental sulfur has potential applications to Venus, Jupiter, Io, Amalthea, and the Earth. The real part, n, of the index of refraction of liquid sulfur (at 133°C) and of solid orthorhombic sulfur (at 25°C) for the wavelength range 0.4–2.0 μm were measured ellipsometrically. The imaginary part, k, of the refractive index of liquid sulfur was obtained by transmittance measurements at the same temperature and wavelength range. The reflectance of semi-infinite slabs of solid and liquid sulfur is calculated using the measured n and k values. We confirm that sulfur melts on Io would be classified as “black” by the Voyager imaging system.     

Polarimetry in the visible and infrared: application to CMB polarimetry

Interstellar polarization from aligned dust grains can be measured both in transmission at visible and near-infrared wavelengths and in emission at far-infrared and sub-mm wavelengths. These observations can help predict the behavior of foreground contamination of CMB polarimetry by dust in the Milky Way. Fractional polarization in emission from aligned dust grains will be at the higher range of currently observed values of 4–10%. Away from the galactic plane, fluctuations in Q and U will be dominated by fluctuations in intensity, and less influenced by fluctuations in fractional polarization and position angle.     

The near infrared camera on the W.M. Keck telescope

The near infrared camera (NIRC) was used for a science demonstration run on the Keck telescope during 16–24 March 1993. The camera used a 256×256 InSb array manufactured by Santa Barbara Research Corporation. Observations were obtained using narrowband and broad band filters from 1 to 2.4 microns, and grisms with a spectral resolution of 0.6 percent in the J, H and K atmospheric windows. The instrument was fully background limited over the entire wavelength range. The sky background was quite low, reaching 14.3 mag/square arc sec in the broadband K _s filter. The image quality of the camera + telescope was excellent, being seeing limited in the range 0.5–0.9.The science demonstration observations of the NIRC on the Keck Telescope included observations of the most distant galaxy known, 4C41.17 at a redshift z=3.8 and the most luminous object known, the IRAS source FSC10214+4724 at a redshift z=2.29. Observations of the radio galaxy address the problem of the alignment effect in high redshift radio galaxies as well as the environments of such systems. FSC10214+4724 appears to be a merging galaxy that is at least 5×10⁸ years old.Based on observations obtained at the W.M.Keck Observatory, which is operated jointly by the California Institute of Technology and the University of CaliforniaThe W.M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership between the California Institute of Technology and the University of California. It was made possible by the generous gift of the W.M. Keck foundation and the support of its president, Howard Keck.     

The project of high spatial resolution near infrared imaging system at Beijing Observatory

A high spatial resolution near infrared imaging system is being developed at Beijing Observatory. It is a joint-project with Institute of Optics and Electronics, CSA, and National Astronomical Observatory, Japan. The system contains a 512 × 512 PtSi CSD near infrared camera and a 21-element adaptive optics system and will be operated at Coudé focus of the 2.16 meter telescope at Xinglong Station, Beijing Observatory. The infrared camera will be fixed at Cassegrain focus with focus reducers too.     

BepiColombo SIMBIO-SYS data: Preliminary evaluation for rock discrimination and recognition in both low and high resolution spectroscopic data in the visible and near infrared spectral intervals

A stereo camera (STC) with panchromatic and 4 visible-near infrared (NIR) filters and a visible-near infrared hyperspectral imager (VIHI) with 400–2000 nm spectral range, integrated into the spectrometers and imagers for BepiColombo integrated observatory-system (SIMBIO-SYS) selected for BepiColombo, are dedicated to the geologic exploration of Mercury's surface. In this study the responses of the two sensors were simulated and degraded by the addition of random noise, with the purpose of evaluating their suitability to resolve the spectroscopic features diagnostic of rock forming minerals and discriminate among different lithotypes.Two cumulates (norite and anorthosite) from a Late Proterozoic layered intrusion and two basaltic lavas from Mount Etna complex were selected as possible terrestrial analogues of Mercury. Interband spectral reflectance ratios of STC noise-free data provided a first order discrimination among the different rock types. VIHI noise-free data compare well with laboratory reflectance data for the identification of the spectral features of the most important rock forming minerals.STC noisy spectra simulated for S/N=200 showed that, because of the low reflectance of the surface rocks, the band ratios of the different rocks can partly overlap, with some uncertainty in rock discrimination. VIHI noisy spectra simulated for S/N=100 indicated that for well defined spectral features with band depth 0.1 reflectance unit, the shift in band position corresponds to a variation of less than 0.03 atoms/formula unit of the spectrally active phases. Weaker bands have a high probability of being misidentified.