Infrared Telescopes

Andrea, Scott, and Martín

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 Infrared…wait what?!?!?
• Infrared is a certain region in the light spectrum
• Ranges from .7µ to 1000µ or .1mm
• Broken into near, mid, and far infrared
• One step up on the light spectrum from visible light
• Measure of heat
 Infrared Telescopes
• Infrared telescopes
work much like visible
light telescopes
• Light hits parabolic
mirror
• Light is sent to focal
point
• Light is recorded by
computer and
translated into visible
light
 History of Infrared
• Thirty years ago images were created by crude
temperature readings and simple recording devices
• In 1980’s the military dedicated the first large sum
of money towards infrared advancement (high
background infrared)
• Recently scientists have changed the technology to
focus on lower background heat and high
sensitivity to fit the applications needed for
astronomy
 Problems with Infrared
• 99% of infrared rays
are absorbed by water
in our atmosphere
• The use of airplanes,
Infrared
weather balloons, and
space bound
telescopes help to
solve these problems
 Another Problemo
• Everything in the
universe above
absolute zero radiates
heat (infrared)
• This means the heat
from the telescope
may interfere with
data
• Everything is cooled
to almost absolute 0
 Why Do We Need Infrared
Telescopes?
• Infrared telescopes allow astronomers to gain
information about regions in space that might
otherwise remain invisible.

http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ir_tutorial/psc_allsky.html
 These regions include:
• Cool states of matter
• Regions obscured by clouds of dust or gas particles

http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ir_tutorial/animation.html
 Cool States of Matter
• Most solid bodies in
space vary in
temperature from 3
Kelvin’s to 1500
Kelvin's.
• This means that
extremely cool objects
undetectable to the
human eye can be
studied using infrared http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/picturegallery/index.shtml

telescopes.
• These can include…
 • Stars
• Infrared galaxies
• Clouds of particles
http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/crab_infrared_lg.gif
around stars
• Nebulae
• Interstellar molecules
• Brown dwarfs
• Planets
http://swtrekking.com/photo_gallery/images/stars.jpg

http://www.astr.tohoku.ac.jp/~tohru/AGgroup/arp220image.jpg
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/ContentMedia/M16WF2.jpg
 Clouds of Dust and Gas
• Some bodies of
matter in space are
hidden behind
huge clouds of
dust particles or
gas.

• Infrared
telescopes allow
scientists to view
these regions • These include the centers of galaxies and
much more easily clouds containing forming stars and planets.
 The Early Universe
• The Universe is constantly expanding
• Because of this, most of the radiation emitted from
distant stars is in the infrared spectrum.
• Our views of these distant bodies of matter in
space actually show us how they looked a long,
long time ago.

http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/cosmic_reference/redshift.html
• To gain a greater knowledge about bodies of
matter in space, we need information about
all of the different forms of radiation that
they emit.
 SOFIA
• Airborne Observatory
• Reduces Atmospheric
Interference
• Will begin observing
in 2005
 SOFIA
• 747SP Aircraft
• 2.5 meter reflector
• Largest telescope put
in an aircraft
 UKIRT
• Earth-based
• Largest infrared
telescope
• Located on Mauna
Kea in Hawaii
• 3.8 meter reflector
• A lot of atmospheric
interference
 Spitzer Space Telescope
• Largest infrared telescope in
space
• No atmospheric interference
• .85 m reflector
• Cryogenically cooled so not to
interfere with signals
 Spitzer’s Cryostat
• Infrared is mostly heat
waves, Spitzer is cool
so its own heat does
not interfere with
signals
• 1.4 degrees kelvin
Spitzer Images
 Bibliography

• http://www.sofia.arc.nasa.gov/Sofia/sofia.ht
ml
• http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/about/index.s
html
• http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/JACpublic/UKI
RT/home.html