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NASA NTRS2011

From X-Ray Telescopes to Neutron Focusing

In the case of neutrons the refractive index is slightly less than unity for most elements and their isotopes. Consequently, thermal and cold neutrons can be reflected from smooth surfaces at grazing-incidence angles. Hence, the optical technologies developed for x-ray astronomy can be applied for neutron focusing. The focusing capabilities of grazing incidence neutron imaging optics have been successfully demonstrated using nickel mirrors. The mirrors were fabricated using an electroformed nickel replication process at Marshall Space Flight Center. Results of the neutron optics experiments will be presented. Challenges of the neutron imaging optics as well as possible applications of the optics will be discussed.

Gubarev, M. V.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Research in planetary astronomy

The objective is the continuation of a long-term research program designed to study the composition, structure and processes operating on the surfaces of solar system objects using the Mauna Kea Observatory with techniques and modern instrumentation. Reflectance spectroscopy and multispectral imaging in the spectral region, 0.3 to 5.0 micrometer are the major techniques used, although thermal (10 micrometer and 20 micrometer) radiometry are used in some aspects of the research. Some specific projects include: (1) systematic spectral imaging observations of the Moon; (2) systematic spectral imaging and spectral monitoring of the Martian surface; (3) thermal radiometry of asteroids as part of the IRAS follow-up and other target specific programs; (4) searches for asteroid satellites and dust belts using a stellar coronagraph; and (5) studies of circumstellar disks using a stellar coronagraph. Progress for each of the programs included is discussed. minerals; (2) completed observations of lunar multi-ringed basins and crater deposits in search of high-Ca spectral anomalies; (3) completed data reduction of an additional 5 asteroids observed by the coronagraphic technique in the search for asteroids satellites and debris clouds; and (4) completed the reduction and calibration of 350 asteroids observed at 10 micron and 20 micron using the NASA IRTF.

Mccord, Thomas B.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Design and fabrication of a CCD camera for use with relay optics in solar X-ray astronomy

Configured as a subsystem of a sounding rocket experiment, a camera system was designed to record and transmit an X-ray image focused on a charge coupled device. The camera consists of a X-ray sensitive detector and the electronics for processing and transmitting image data. The design and operation of the camera are described. Schematics are included.

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NASA NTRS2002

Development of High Resolution Mirrors and Cd-Zn-Te Detectors for Hard X-ray Astronomy

We describe the fabrication and implementation of a high-resolution conical, grazing- incidence, hard X-ray (20-70 keV) telescope. When flown aboard stratospheric balloons, these mirrors are used to image cosmic sources such as supernovae, neutron stars, and quasars. The fabrication process involves generating super-polished mandrels, mirror shell electroforming, and mirror testing. The cylindrical mandrels consist of two conical segments; each segment is approximately 305 mm long. These mandrels are first, precision ground to within approx. 1.0 micron straightness along each conical segment and then lapped and polished to less than 0.5 micron straightness. Each mandrel segment is the super-polished to an average surface roughness of approx. 3.25 angstrom rms. By mirror shell replication, this combination of good figure and low surface roughness has enabled us to achieve 15 arcsec, confirmed by X-ray measurements in the Marshall Space Flight Center 102 meter test facility. To image the focused X-rays requires a focal plane detector with appropriate spatial resolution. For 15 arcsec optics of 6 meter focal length, this resolution must be around 200 microns. In addition, the detector must have a high efficiency, relatively high energy resolution, and low background. We are currently developing Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride fine-pixel detectors for this purpose. The detectors under study consist of a 16x16 pixel array with a pixel pitch of 300 microns and are 1 mm and 2 mm thick. At 60 keV, the measured energy resolution is around 2%.

Ramsey, Brian D.↗

NASA NTRS2003

The Design and Performance of the 384: Element Submillimeter Detector Array for SHARC II

We report on the performance of the SHARC II detector, a 12 x 32 array of ion implanted Si pop-up bolometers. This 384 element detector array was built as a prototype for the High Angular Resolution Widefield Camera (HAWC) for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). We will discuss the design process, the characterization of the detectors, and the performance of the array in the SHARC II instrument. SHARC II is now a facility instrument on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, providing background-limited imaging at 350 and 450 microns.

Moseley, Samuel H.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Polarization Imaging Apparatus

A polarization imaging apparatus has shown promise as a prototype of instruments for medical imaging with contrast greater than that achievable by use of non-polarized light. The underlying principles of design and operation are derived from observations that light interacts with tissue ultrastructures that affect reflectance, scattering, absorption, and polarization of light. The apparatus utilizes high-speed electro-optical components for generating light properties and acquiring polarization images through aligned polarizers. These components include phase retarders made of OptoCeramic (registered TradeMark) material - a ceramic that has a high electro-optical coefficient. The apparatus includes a computer running a program that implements a novel algorithm for controlling the phase retarders, capturing image data, and computing the Stokes polarization images. Potential applications include imaging of superficial cancers and other skin lesions, early detection of diseased cells, and microscopic analysis of tissues. The high imaging speed of this apparatus could be beneficial for observing live cells or tissues, and could enable rapid identification of moving targets in astronomy and national defense. The apparatus could also be used as an analysis tool in material research and industrial processing.

Zou, Yingyin K.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Technology Needs for Gamma Ray Astronomy

Gamma ray astronomy is currently in an exciting period of multiple missions and a wealth of data. Results from INTEGRAL, Fermi, AGILE, Suzaku and Swift are making large contributions to our knowledge of high energy processes in the universe. The advances are due to new detector and imaging technologies. The steps to date have been from scintillators to solid state detectors for sensors and from light buckets to coded aperture masks and pair telescopes for imagers. A key direction for the future is toward focusing telescopes pushing into the hard X-ray regime and Compton telescopes and pair telescopes with fine spatial resolution for medium and high energy gamma rays. These technologies will provide finer imaging of gamma-ray sources. Importantly, they will also enable large steps forward in sensitivity by reducing background.

Gehrels, Neil↗

NASA NTRS1992

Programmability in AIPS++

AIPS++ is an Astronomical Information Processing System being designed and implemented by an international consortium of NRAO and six other radio astronomy institutions in Australia, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the USA. AIPS++ is intended to replace the functionality of AIPS, to be more easily programmable, and will be implemented in C++ using object-oriented techniques. Programmability in AIPS++ is planned at three levels. The first level will be that of a command-line interpreter with characteristics similar to IDL and PV-Wave, but with an intensive set of operations appropriate to telescope data handling, image formation, and image processing. The third level will be in C++ with extensive use of class libraries for both basic operations and advanced applications. The third level will allow input and output of data between external FORTRAN programs and AIPS++ telescope and image databases. In addition to summarizing the above programmability characteristics, this talk will given an overview of the classes currently being designed for telescope data calibration and editing, image formation, and the 'toolkit' of mathematical 'objects' that will perform most of the processing in AIPS++.

Hjellming, R. M.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Astometry at La Silla

Astronomy of comets and minor planets is done regularly at ESO, La Silla, Chile. Plates are obtained with the 1 m Schmidt telescope and the 40 cm GPO, and CCD frames with the Danish 1.5 m telescope. Reductions are carried out by microdensitometer scanning and image processing at ESO, Garching, FRG. P/Halley will be observed intensively during the interval from perihelion passage on 9 February 1986 until the middle of March 1986. Almost real-time, accurate positions will be made in support of the spacecraft missions.

West, R. M.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Giant Molecular Clouds and High-Mass Star Formation in the Milky Way

We are conducting an extensive investigation of high-mass (OB) star formation within the dense cores of giant molecular clouds (GMCS) throughout the first Galactic quadrant of the Milky Way using enhanced resolution Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) images in combination with high-resolution ground-based observations in millimeter wave molecular transitions and radio continuum. As part of this investigation several resolution enhancement algorithms are applied to the IRAS data, including the HIgh RESolution (HIRES) algorithm developed at the IRAS Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), as well as others ("pixon" image reconstruction). In addition, as part of a related study, we have completed a large survey of the CO emission in the first Galactic quadrant using the 15-element array detector (QUARRY) with the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (FCRAO) 14 m antenna, which provides sampling at an angular resolution of 50", comparable to that attained in the reprocessed IRAS data. Both of these data sets are compared with a sample of ultra-compact (UC) H II regions taken from a high-resolution multi-wavelength (6 and 20 cm) radio survey of the Galactic plane using the NRAO Very Large Array (VLA). Selected regions are observed in 1.3 mm continuum, which has proven to be particularly sensitive to the dust column density. Extensive observations of molecular clouds at high resolution in CO, CS and HCN are combined with the reprocessed IRAS high-resolution images to give a more complete picture of the physical conditions and kinematics of high-mass star forming GMCS. Our goals are to study in detail the morphology, structure, and rate of high-mass star formation within GMCs throughout the Galactic disk from the inner edge of the molecular ring to the outer Galaxy.

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NASA NTRS2016

NASA's Physics of the Cosmos and Cosmic Origins Technology Development Programs

The strategic astrophysics missions of the coming decades will help answer the questions "How did our universe begin and evolve?" and "How did galaxies, stars, and planets come to be?" Enabling these missions requires advances in key technologies far beyond the current state of the art. NASA's Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) and Cosmic Origins (COR) Program Offices manage technology maturation projects funded through the Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) program to accomplish such advances. The PCOS and COR Program Offices, residing at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), were established in 2011, and serve as the implementation arm for the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. We present an overview of the Programs' technology development activities and the current technology investment portfolio of 23 technology advancements. We discuss the process for addressing community-provided technology gaps and Technology Management Board (TMB)-vetted prioritization and investment recommendations that inform the SAT program. The process improves the transparency and relevance of our technology investments, provides the community a voice in the process, and promotes targeted external technology investments by defining needs and identifying customers. The Programs' priorities are driven by strategic direction from the Astrophysics Division, which is informed by the National Research Council's (NRC) "New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics" (NWNH) 2010 Decadal Survey report [1], the Astrophysics Implementation Plan (AIP) [2] as updated, and the Astrophysics Roadmap "Enduring Quests, Daring Visions" [3]. These priorities include technology development for missions to study dark energy, gravitational waves, X-ray and inflation probe science, and large far-infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV)/optical/IR telescopes to conduct imaging and spectroscopy studies. The SAT program is the Astrophysics Division's main investment method to mature technologies that will be identified by study teams set up to inform the 2020 Decadal Survey process on several large astrophysics mission concepts.

SPIE paper↗

NASA NTRS2008

The Stellar Imager (SI) Project: A Deep Space UV/Optical Interferometer (UVOI) to Observe the Universe at 0.1 Milli-Arcsec Angular Resolution

The Stellar Imager (SI) is a space-based, UV/ Optical Interferometer (UVOI) designed to enable 0.1 milliarcsecond (mas) spectral imaging of stellar surfaces and of the Universe in general. It will also probe via asteroseismology flows and structures in stellar interiors. SI's science focuses on the role of magnetism in the Universe and will revolutionize our understanding, of the formation of planetary systems, of the habitability and climatology of distant planets, and of many magneto-hydrodynamically controlled processes, such as accretion, in the Universe. The ultra-sharp images of SI will revolutionize our view of many dynamic astrophysical processes by transforming point sources into extended sources, and snapshots into evolving views. SI is a "Flagship and Landmark Discovery Mission" in the 2005 Heliophysics Roadmap and a potential implementation of the UVOI in the 2006 Science Program for NASA's Astronomy and Physics Division. We present here the science goals of the SI Mission, a mission architecture that could meet those goals, and the technology development needed to enable this missin. Additional information on SI can be found at: http://hires.gsfc.nasa.gov/si/.

Carpenter, Kenneth G.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Three-mirror space telescope, volume 2

The anastigmatic three mirror telescope for STARSAT, a space astronomy facility, was redesigned and reoptimized in order to improve the optical system and increase its versatility. A more compact system was obtained by decreasing the primary focal ratio from 2.2 to 2.0. A high performance Rowland spectrograph that uses only a total of three reflections and does not interfere with the imaging process, was successfully incorporated into the telescope so that it could be a permanent part of the system. The usefulness of this telescope concept as a high resolution coronagraph is examined.

Korsch, D.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Multi-spectral Observations of the Star Formation: the Role of Far Infrared Photometry

The study and analysis of complex astrophysical process requires a multispectral approach employing many of the tools of modern astronomy. The study of the interaction of early type stars with the interstellar medium is an example of this point. Two examples of multi-spectral studies of individual objects are reviewed. The predominent theme is the combination of high resolution far infrared photometry, radio images and millimeter-wave spectroscopy with the radio sensitive to the ionization, the millimeter-wave lines showing the structure and excitation of the gas and the far infrared providing a picture of the energetics of the dust which connects the star to the interstellar medium. Multispectral observations of FIRSSE and IRAS objects are discussed.

Schwartz, P. R.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Chondrites and the Protoplanetary Disk, Part 3

Contents include the following: Ca-, Al-Rich Inclusions and Ameoboid Olivine Aggregates: What We Know and Don t Know About Their Origin. Aluminium-26 and Oxygen Isotopic Distributions of Ca-Al-rich Inclusions from Acfer 214 CH Chondrite. The Trapping Efficiency of Helium in Fullerene and Its Implicatiion to the Planetary Science. Constraints on the Origin of Chondritic Components from Oxygen Isotopic Compositions. Role of Planetary Impacts in Thermal Processing of Chondrite Materials. Formation of the Melilite Mantle of the Type B1 CAIs: Flash Heating or Transport? The Iodine-Xenon System in Outer and Inner Portions of Chondrules from the Unnamed Antarctic LL3 Chondrite. Nucleosynthesis of Short-lived Radioactivities in Massive Stars. The Two-Fluid Analysis of the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in the Dust Layer of a Protoplanetary Disk: A Possible Path to the Planetesimal Formation Through the Gravitational Instability. Shock-Wave Heating Model for Chonodrule Formation: Heating Rate and Cooling Rate Constraints. Glycine Amide Hydrolysis with Water and OH Radical: A Comparative DFT Study. Micron-sized Sample Preparation for AFM and SEM. AFM, FE-SEM and Optical Imaging of a Shocked L/LL Chondrite: Implications for Martensite Formation and Wave Propagation. Infrared Spectroscopy of Chondrites and Their Components: A Link Between Meteoritics and Astronomy? Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of CAI and Their Mineral Components. The Origin of Iron Isotope Fractionation in Chondrules, CAIs and Matrix from Allende (CV3) and Chainpur (LL3) Chondrites. Protoplanetary Disk Evolution: Early Results from Spitzer. Kinetics of Evaporation-Condensation in a Melt-Solid System and Its Role on the Chemical Composition and Evolution of Chondrules. Oxygen Isotope Exchange Recorded Within Anorthite Single Crystal in Vigarano CAI: Evidence for Remelting by High Temperature Process in the Solar Nebula. Chondrule Forming Shock Waves in Solar Nebula by X-Ray Flares. Organic Globules with Anormalous Nitrogen Isotopic Compositions in the Tagish Lake Meteorite: Products of Primitive Organic Reactions. Yet Another Chondrule Formation Scenario. CAIs are Not Supernova Condensates. Microcrystals and Amorphous Material in Comets and Primitive Meteorites: Keys to Understanding Processes in the Early Solar System. A Nearby Supernova Injected Short-lived Radionuclides into Our Protoplanetary Disk. REE+Y Systematics in CC and UOC Chondrules. Meteoritic Constraints on Temperatures, Pressures, Cooling Rates, Chemical Compositions, and Modes of Condensation in the Solar Nebula. The I-Xe Record of Long Equilibration in Chondrules from the Unnamed Antarctic Meteorite L3/LL3. Early Stellar Evolution.

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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Deep Learning Vetting of TESS FFI Data: Results and Comparison with 2-Min Data

We present the results of vetting TCEs from the TESS SPOC full-frame images (FFI) Year 5 data using our deep learning model, and we compare the performance in this dataset against the results obtained for the TESS SPOC 2-min data. The 200-second cadence FFI data expands the search to a list of targets that not only includes 2-minute targets, but also potentially high-value targets within 100 parsecs or with H-magnitude <10, and field targets with TESS magnitude <13.5. This work aims to explore this rich dataset and increase the efficiency and throughput of the vetting process by helping unearth more high-quality planet candidates from the TESS mission.

tess spoc↗

NASA NTRS1988

Instrumentation for gamma-ray astronomy

The current status of gamma-ray-telescope technology for ground, airborne, and space observations is surveyed and illustrated with drawings, diagrams, and graphs and tables of typical data. For the low- and medium-energy ranges, consideration is given to detectors and detector cooling systems, background-rejection methods, radiation damage, large-area detectors, gamma-ray imaging, data analysis, and the Compton-interaction region. Also discussed are the gamma-ray interaction process at high energies; multilevel automated spark-chamber gamma-ray telescopes; the Soviet Gamma-1 telescope; the EGRET instrument for the NASA Gamma-Ray Observatory; and Cerenkov, air-shower, and particle-detector instruments for the TeV and PeV ranges. Significant improvements in resolution and sensitivity are predicted for the near future.

Bertsch, David L.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Navigation of space VLBI missions: Radioastron and VSOP

In the mid-1990s, Russian and Japanese space agencies will each place into highly elliptic earth orbit a radio telescope consisting of a large antenna and radio astronomy receivers. Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) techniques will be used to obtain high resolution images of radio sources observed by the space and ground based antennas. Stringent navigation accuracy requirements are imposed on the space VLBI missions by the need to transfer an ultra-stable ground reference frequency standard to the spacecraft and by the demands of the VLBI correlation process. Orbit determination for the mission will be the joint responsibility of navigation centers in the U.S., Russia, and Japan with orbit estimates based on combining tracking data from NASA, Russian, and Japanese sites. This paper describes the operational plans, the inter-agency coordination, and data exchange between the navigation centers required for space VLBI navigation.

Ellis, Jordan↗