Engineering topics

Werner, Michael W

Publications and source records attributed to Werner, Michael W.

4 records

DOE OSTI2018

Science Impacts of the SPHEREx All-Sky Optical to Near-Infrared Spectral Survey II: Report of a Community Workshop on the Scientific Synergies Between the SPHEREx Survey and Other Astronomy Observatories

SPHEREx is a proposed NASA MIDEX mission selected for Phase A study. SPHEREx would carry out the first all-sky spectral survey in the near infrared. At the end of its two-year mission, SPHEREx would obtain 0.75-to-5$\mu$m spectra of every 6.2 arcsec pixel on the sky, with spectral resolution R > 35 and a 5-$\sigma$ sensitivity AB > 19 per spectral/spatial resolution element. More details concerning SPHEREx are available at http://spherex.caltech.edu. The SPHEREx team has proposed three specific science investigations to be carried out with this unique data set: cosmic inflation, interstellar and circumstellar ices, and the extra-galactic background light. Though these three themes are undoubtedly compelling, they are far from exhausting the scientific output of SPHEREx. Indeed, SPHEREx would create a unique all-sky spectral database including spectra of very large numbers of astronomical and solar system targets, including both extended and diffuse sources. These spectra would enable a wide variety of investigations, and the SPHEREx team is dedicated to making the data available to the community to enable these investigations, which we refer to as Legacy Science. To that end, we have sponsored two workshops for the general scientific community to identify the most interesting Legacy Science themes and to ensure that the SPHEREx data products are responsive to their needs. In February of 2016, some 50 scientists from all fields met in Pasadena to develop these themes and to understand their implications for the SPHEREx mission. The 2016 workshop highlighted many synergies between SPHEREx and other contemporaneous astronomical missions, facilities, and databases. Consequently, in January 2018 we convened a second workshop at the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge to focus specifically on these synergies. This white paper reports on the results of the 2018 SPHEREx workshop.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2012

SPITZER OBSERVATIONS OF HOTSPOTS IN RADIO LOBES

We have carried out a systematic search with Spitzer Warm Mission and archival data for infrared emission from the hotspots in radio lobes that have been described by Hardcastle et al. These hotspots have been detected with both radio and X-ray observations, but an observation at an intermediate frequency in the infrared can be critical to distinguish between competing models for particle acceleration and radiation processes in these objects. Between the archival and warm mission data, we report detections of 18 hotspots; the archival data generally include detections at all four IRAC bands, the Warm Mission data only at 3.6 {mu}m. Using a theoretical formalism adopted from Godfrey et al., we fit both archival and warm mission spectral energy distributions (SEDs)-including radio, X-ray, and optical data from Hardcastle as well as the Spitzer data-with a synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model, in which the X-rays are produced by Compton scattering of the radio frequency photons by the energetic electrons which radiate them. With one exception, an SSC model requires that the magnetic field be less or much less than the equipartition value which minimizes total energy and has comparable amounts of energy in the magnetic field and in the energetic particles. This conclusion agrees with those of comparable recent studies of hotspots, and with the analysis presented by Hardcastle et al. We also show that the infrared data rule out the simplest synchrotron-only models for the SEDs. We briefly discuss the implications of these results and of alternate interpretations of the data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

COMPLEX SCATTERED RADIATION FIELDS AND MULTIPLE MAGNETIC FIELDS IN THE PROTOSTELLAR CLUSTER IN NGC 2264

Near-infrared imaging polarimetry in the J, H, and K{sub s} bands has been carried out for the protostellar cluster region around NGC 2264 IRS 2 in the Monoceros OB1 molecular cloud. Various infrared reflection nebula clusters (IRNCs) associated with NGC 2264 IRS 2 and the IRAS 12 S1 core, as well as local infrared reflection nebulae (IRNe), were detected. The illuminating sources of the IRNe were identified with known or new near- and mid-infrared sources. In addition, 314 point-like sources were detected in all three bands and their aperture polarimetry was studied. Using a color-color diagram, reddened field stars and diskless pre-main-sequence stars were selected to trace the magnetic field (MF) structure of the molecular cloud. The mean polarization position angle of the point-like sources is 81 Degree-Sign {+-} 29 Degree-Sign in the cluster core, and 58 Degree-Sign {+-} 24 Degree-Sign in the perimeter of the cluster core, which is interpreted as the projected direction on the sky of the MF in the observed region of the cloud. The Chandrasekhar-Fermi method gives a rough estimate of the MF strength to be about 100 {mu}G. A comparison with recent numerical simulations of the cluster formation implies that the cloud dynamics is controlled by the relatively strong MF. The local MF direction is well associated with that of CO outflow for IRAS 12 S1 and consistent with that inferred from submillimeter polarimetry. In contrast, the local MF direction runs roughly perpendicular to the Galactic MF direction.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2010

C{sub 60} IN REFLECTION NEBULAE

The fullerene C{sub 60} has four infrared-active vibrational transitions at 7.0, 8.5, 17.4, and 18.9 {mu}m. We have previously observed emission features at 17.4 and 18.9 {mu}m in the reflection nebula NGC 7023 and demonstrated spatial correlations suggestive of a common origin. We now confirm our earlier identification of these features with C{sub 60} by detecting a third emission feature at 7.04 {+-} 0.05 {mu}m in NGC 7023. We also report the detection of these three C{sub 60} features in the reflection nebula NGC 2023. Our spectroscopic mapping of NGC 7023 shows that the 18.9 {mu}m C{sub 60} feature peaks on the central star and that the 16.4 {mu}m emission feature due to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons peaks between the star and a nearby photodissociation front. The observed features in NGC 7023 are consistent with emission from UV-excited gas-phase C{sub 60}. We find that 0.1%-0.6% of interstellar carbon is in C{sub 60}; this abundance is consistent with those from previous upper limits and possible fullerene detections in the interstellar medium (ISM). This is the first firm detection of neutral C{sub 60} in the ISM.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗