Infrared spectroscopy over the 2.9–3.9 μm waveband in biochemistry and astronomy

The infrared spectrum of the galactic centre source IRS 7 over the 2.9–3.9 m waveband is interpreted as strong evidence for bacterial grains.     

A high resolution mid-infrared image of the Starburst Galaxy M82

We have produced high-resolution images of the nuclear region of M82 with SpectroCam-10, a mid-infrared instrument at the Palomar 5 m telescope. These images were taken at 11.7 m and 9.8 m with a 1m filter bandpass at the diffraction limit of 0.6 arcsec, making them the highest resolution maps yet available of M82. In addition, we have obtained high-resolution (/=2000) maps of the velocity field of the nuclear disk of M82 in the 12.81 m line emission of [NeII]. In these proceedings we present the 11.7 m image, which will appear together with the 9.8 m map and the [Ne II] spectra in a subsequent paper, now in preparation. This image shows very clearly a bridge structure joining the eastern and western clusters.     

A search for carbon stars in the AFGL Catalogue

A comparison between theGeneral Catalogue of Cool Carbon Stars (CCS) and theAFGL Catalogue has been performed.Eighty-five stars have been found in common between the two lists. Eighty-four stars which were present in Baumert's comparison between CCS and the 2 Sky Survey have no counterpart in the AFGL. Four new tentative identifications are given. The analysis of the two colours diagrams K-[4.2 ] vs. I-K and I-[4.2 ] vs. [4.2 ]-[11 ] led to the conclusion that all the infrared emission from the sources seems to come from a single circumstellar shell.     

Extinction coefficients of amorphous carbon grains from 2100 Å to 340 μm

Extinction measurements were made for three kinds of amorphous carbon grains in the range 2100 -340 m. Absolute values of extinction coefficients from different sources vary by almost constant factors. Wavelength dependences of extinction curves show a ^–1 or less steep fall off, against a ^–2 or steeper fall off of graphite grains. Small humps are found around 6.3, 8, 13.3 and 90 m, although their origins are not yet clear. The infrared properties of amorphous carbon grains suggest that they could supply a significant amount of far-infrared emission noted in recent astronomical observations.     

Arome,a balloon-borne instrument for astronomical near-infrared spectrophotometry

We present here the French balloon-borne experiment named AROME. This astronomical instrument is specifically designed for the detection of near infrared emission bands (=3–12m) from extended sources of low surface brightness with an angular resolution of 0.5°. The rms sensitivity achieved is of the order of 10^-8 Wm^-2sr^-1, in terms of the power radiated in the 3.3m band. We recall that this program led to the first detection of the 3.3m feature in the spectrum of the diffuse galactic emission. The scientific results were presented and interpreted in Paper I, Giard et al., 1989. Future work will include both the observation of fainter objects at 3.3m and the detection of other emission bands at 6.2 and 11.3m.     

Massive accretion disks

Recent high resolution near infrared (HST-NICMOS) and mm-interferometric imaging have revealed dense gas and dust accretion disks in nearby ultra-luminous galactic nuclei. In the best studied ultraluminousIR galaxy, Arp 220, the 2m imaging shows dust disks in both of the merging galactic nuclei and mm-CO line imaging indicates molecular gasmasses 10⁹M for each disk. The two gas disks in Arp 220 are counterrotating and their dynamical masses are 2×10⁹ M , that is, only slightly largerthan the gas masses. These disks have radii 100 pc and thickness 10-50 pc. The high brightness temperatures of the CO lines indicatethat the gas in the disks has area filling factors 25-50% and mean densitiesof 10⁴ cm^-3. Within these nuclear disks, the rate of massive star formation is undoubtedly prodigious and, given the high viscosity of the gas, there will also be high radial accretion rates, perhaps 10 M yr ^-1. If this inflow persists to very small radii, it is enough to feed even the highest luminosity AGNs.     

The solar-flare infrared continuum: Observational techniques and upper limits

Exploratory observations at 20 and 350 have determined detection thresholds for solar flares in these wavelengths. In the 20 range solar atmospheric fluctuations (the temperature field) set the basic limits on flare detectability at 5K; at 350 the extinction in the Earth's atmosphere provides the basic limitation of 30K. These thresholds are low enough for the successful detection of several infrared-emitting components of large flares. Limited observing time and lack of solar activity have prevented observations of large flares up to the present, but the techniques promise to be extremely useful in the future.The upper limits obtained thus far, for subflares, indicate that the thickness of the H flare region does not exceed 10 km. This result confirms the conclusion of Suemoto and Hiei (1959) regarding the small effective thickness of the H-emitting regions in solar flares.     

Three-dimensional,periodic, ‘halo’ orbits

A largely numerical study was made of families of three-dimensional, periodic, halo orbits near the collinear libration points in the restricted three-body problem. Families extend from each of the libration points to the nearest primary. They appear to exist for all values of the mass ratio , from 0 to 1. More importantly, most of the families contain a range of stable orbits. Only near L₁, the libration point between the two primaries, are there no stable orbits for certain values of . In that case the stable range decreases with increasing , until it disappears at =0.0573. Near the other libration points, stable orbits exist for all mass ratios investigated between 0 and 1. In addition, the orbits increase in size with increasing .     

Near-infrared observations of the peculiar binary system epsilon Aurigae

Near-infrared photometric and low-resolution spectroscopic observations of Aurigae at two phases during the current eclipse are presented. The eclipse depths are found to be wavelength-independent in the infrared right up to 2.5 m. There is no infrared excess at wavelengths shorter than 2.5 m. The light absorbing particles in the eclipsing body must be larger than 10 m in size.     

Mid- and far-infrared extinction coefficients of hydrous silicate minerals

Extinction coefficients were measured for three kind of hydrous silicate minerals, montmorillonite, chlorite and serpentine, from 7 to 140 m. The infrared extinction coefficients of these minerals show (1) a few broad bands in the mid-infrared region and (2) a less steep wavelength-dependence in the far-infrared region, in contrast to those of high-temperature magnesium silicates. In the far-infrared region, montmorillonite shows a ^–0.8±0.1 dependence (, the wavelength) without any band structure, chlorite has a double maxima structure around 80 m, and serpentine shows a rather steep dependence with a small peak at 77 m.The changes of mid-infrared spectra by heating were measured. Change in chlorite spectrum is the most significant. Many fine features appear by heating and then they disappear. Above 900°C one broad feature remains around 10 m. Fine features of the montmorillonite spectrum disappear by heating. For serpentine, many new peaks appear and the spectrum resembles the spectrum of olivin. In near-infrared a band around 2.72 m disappears by heating.Extinction coefficients at very low temperatures were measured in the far-infrared region. For montmorillonite and serpentine, the spectrum is the same as that at room temperature. The double peaks of chlorite around 80 m become higher.     

A photometric study of faculae and sunspots between 1.2 and 1.6 μm

We investigate further the interpretation of dark magnetic faculae observed in previous imaging of the solar photosphere at 1.63 m. We show that their contrast at 1.63 m increases with magnetic flux beyond a threshold value of 2 × 10¹⁸ Mx and blends smoothly with the contrast vs flux relation measured at this wavelength for larger structures of sunspot size. Not all facular structures that are bright in Ca K are dark at 1.63 m, apparently because their magnetic flux is not large enough. After correction for blurring, the contrast of the dark faculae observed near the disc center at 1.63 m is approximately 4%. But our observations at 1.23 m, which probe slightly higher photospheric levels, do not show these dark faculae. These results indicate that magnetic flux tubes of diameter as small as 500 km significantly inhibit convective heat flow to the photosphere, much as do sunspot flux tubes of much larger diameter. They also suggest that, in even smaller flux tubes, the inhibition becomes rapidly less significant. Finally, we show that the sunspot-size dependence of umbral infrared contrast versus wavelength that we observe can probably be explained in terms of instrumental blurring. Observations with lower scattered light will be required to determine whether a real decrease of contrast with diameter also plays a role.     

The evaluation of the interplanetary diffusion coefficient for energetic particles employing real magnetic field data

A numerical simulation of energetic particle motion in the interplanetary medium is carried out using HEOS-2 magnetometer data in order to computeD(), the pitch angle diffusion coefficient, where is cosine of pitch angle defined with respect to the local field. WhileD() exceeds that given by quasi-linear theory near 90° pitch angle, it is significantly less at higher values of , leading to a parallel transport coefficient in good accord with that given by experimental studies of solar proton propagation. In particular, =0.031 AU at a particle magnetic rigidity of 455 MV, while experimental results range from 0.05 to 0.07 AU (+100%, –50%) in this rigidity region. Furthermore, observed approximately -dependent solar proton pitch angle distributions are consistent with the computed findingD()/(1 – ²)² ~ constant.The validity of various analytical corrections to quasi-linear theory as 0 are also investigated numerically.     

The identification of the 3μ spectral feature in galactic infrared sources

We show that a 3 extinction feature in galactic infrared sources cannot be due to water-ice grains. Infrared spectra with a resolution of /=0.015 are in remarkably close agreement with the 2.5–4 extinction properties calculated for bacterial grains.     

The propagation of solar cosmic-ray bursts

A model is presented in which we show analytically the three phases of anisotropy which occur during solar cosmic-ray events observed in the 7.5 MeV to 21 MeV kinetic-energy interval and reported by McCracken et al. (1971): (i) a highly anisotropic, near field-aligned, initial phase, (ii) a convective phase, and (iii) a late-time phase in which the anisotropy is approximately perpendicular to the mean interplanetary magnetic field. The model is based on the cosmic-ray particles being convectively transported out from the Sun, undergoing anisotropic diffusion along the interplanetary magnetic-field lines, and losing energy by adiabatic deceleration or by collision processes. The event is seen simply as a pulse moving outward from the Sun after a cosmic-ray burst with a negative density-gradient in front of it and a positive gradient behind. The convective phase (ii) occurs as the spatial peak moves past the observer and has a propagation speed V _d associated with it; the anisotropy vector late in the decay phase (iii) is the result of a residual balance between the radial outward convection and the inward radial component of the anisotropic diffusion. The mathematical solutions are based upon a diffusion coefficient proportional to heliocentric radius and independent of energy and are thus rather special. However they yield formulae for the propagation speed of the convective phase and the direction in space of the long-time anisotropy which are useful as a guide to the dependence of these quantities on the solar wind speed V, the diffusion coefficient and the spectral index . In this model V _d increases with V, , and ; and , the angle between the anisotropy vector at infinite time and the outward radial direction increases with /V and decreases as is increased. These predictions of the dependence of and V _d upon V, , and are open to observational verification.     

10 and 20 Micron imaging with arrays

We discuss imaging with arrays in the thermal IR. Aspects of the design and performance of the Golden Gopher, an infrared array camera are presented. This instrument operates in a high-background environment, for ground-based astronomical imaging from 5 to 27 m. It is built around a 20×64 element Si:As Impurity Band Conduction (IBC) device manufactured by GenCorp Aerojet Electronic Systems Division, and has a noise-equivalent flux density (NEFD) of 23.5mJy min ^-1/2 arcsec^-2 at =10m, =1m, on the Mt. Lemmon 1.5m telescope. We present and discuss a sample of the data. In addition we discuss the design and expected performance of the Long Wavelength Spectrometer which is now under construction for the Keck telescope.     

The activity of the nuclei of spiral galaxies and IR-emission

It is shown that the brightness of the spiral galactic nuclei at 10 depends on the Byurakan type of galaxies: the brightness is higher in the case of galaxies of types 5, 2s, 4, and 2 with optical signs of activity in comparison with galaxies of types 3 and 1 without optical signs of activity. The noted difference is larger when nonstellar emission at 10 is considered. The obtained results confirm conclusions made earlier on the activity of the nuclei of galaxies of types 5, 2s, 4, and 2.     

Axion decay in a strong magnetic field and radio fluxes from magnetic white dwarfs

Radio emission of isolated magnetic white dwarfs due to invisible axions decay in a strong magnetic field is estimated. It is possible to reach theoretical limits on the abundance and coupling of cosmic axions provided that radiofluxes would be observed at the level 1 Jy.Paper presented at the 11th European Regional Astronomical Meetings of the IAU on New Windows to the Universe, held 3–8 July, 1989, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.     

Extinction and scattering by several types of silicate sphere of radius 0.05–1.0μm,for the wavelength range 0.21–50μm

The exact calculation of scattering and absorption by various sub-micron sized silicate spheres is presented here, using accurately determined optical constants in the wavelength range from 50 m to 0.21 m. The extinction features near 10 m and 20 m for various samples are discussed. It is found that the ratio of peak extinction at 20 m to that at 10 m is constant for small particles up tor=0.4 m, but is less for particles of radius 1 m. The ratio of maximum extinction in the ultraviolet to that at 10 m decreases with increasing particle size.     

Hα line emission and infrared excess in Be stars

The H observations of a selected sample of bright Be stars are presented. The available infrared observations at K band (2.2 m) of these stars have been used to find the infrared excess emission. The analysis of the combined data show thatL _H, the luminosity of the H emission line, is proportional toL _IR, the luminosity of the infrared excess emission. The linear correlation betweenL _IR andL _H shows that both the infrared excess and the H line originate in a common region. It is also detected that the infrared excess emission is produced throughout the whole envelope whereas the H is emitted in some defined region of the circumstellar (CS) envelope.     

Sub-arcsec 10 μm imaging of β pictoris and other star disk candidates

We have used the ESO 10 m camera, TIMMI, to image with a very high angular resolution (PFoV: 0.3; FWHM:0.9) several main-sequence star disk candidates. Information on the -Pictoris dust disk has been obtained in a region largely inaccessible to previous observations: 0–80 AU, with a resolution of about 5 AU after deconvolution. Another promising target for 10 m imaging, 51 Ophiuchi, appears point-like.based on data collected at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), La Silla, Chile