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Optical
image of the Orion Nebula star-forming region.
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The
AASCs highest-priority recommendation in the moderate cost category
for both space-and ground-based initiatives promotes not an instrument
but a program, one that will fund instruments for the new generation
of large telescopes that are being constructed at university and
independent observatories. The Telescope System Instrumentation
Program (TSIP) will leverage these investments by markedly improving
the equipment that detects and analyzes the radiation reaching these
telescopes. In particular, TSIP will assist the development of systems
for adaptive optics, which continuously readjust the reflecting
surface of a telescope, canceling the blurring effects of the atmosphere.
Adaptive optics will allow a manyfold increase in the angular resolving
power of all large telescopes. This improvement will give these
telescopes an increased ability to study a host of phenomena. Among
these are the atmospheres of the other planets in the solar system,
the structure of protoplanetary disks around other stars, the behavior
of matter in active galactic nuclei, the history of star formation
in young galaxies, and the nature of the objects that produce mysterious
bursts of gamma rays.
Visit
the NOAO TSIP Site
THE
SINGLE APERTURE FAR INFRARED OBSERVATORY (SAFIR)WILL PROVIDE OUR
MOST SENSITIVE EYE ON THE FAR-INFRARED FRONTIER
The
Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) will enable infrared observations
with about three times the angular resolution and 100 times the
sensitivity of the HST. However, the NGST cannot observe infrared
radiation with the longest wavelengths-the far-infrared domain of
the spectrum. This spectral region is rich in information about
stars and galaxies in the process of forming; brown dwarfs ("failed
stars" that have too little mass to begin nuclear fusion);
and ultraluminous, infrared-radiating galaxies. Although significant
improvements in observations of the far- infrared domain will occur
with the coming deployment of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility,
the airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, and
the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, longer-wavelength
observations with greater sensitivity are needed. The recommended
next step for observing the cosmos at far- infrared wavelengths
is the space-borne Single Aperture Far Infrared (SAFIR) Observatory.
SAFIR will include both a telescope with a mirror at least as large
as that of the NGST and a set of cooled instruments. Its size and
temperature will give it an angular precision and an ability to
detect faint sources that will make it roughly a million times superior
to existing instruments that observe the far-infrared spectral domain.
Because the NGST will pioneer cost- effective development of space-borne
telescopes with mirrors larger than the HST's, SAFIR can be designed
and built more cheaply than the NGST.
Visit
the official (CARMA) site
OTHER
LONGER-WAVELENGTH TOOLS
The
Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy and the
South Pole Submillimeter-wave Telescope will be powerful tools for
studying star-forming molecular clouds and other dusty parts of
the universe, as well as clusters of galaxies.
Visit
The South Pole Submillimeter-wave Telescope Site at Harvard
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