Max Planck Institute for Astronomy - Annual Report 2005

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88 IV. Instrumental Development All this is foreseeable. So only a few years after the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) the planning of its successor, the »Next Generation Space Telescope« (NGST), was started. This new instrument should by far excel the achievements of its famous predecessor. It is an experience frequently confirmed during the last century; once the performance of an astronomical instrument is increased by about a factor of ten, new discoveries follow. With Hubble, sensitivity and spatial resolution were increased each by this order of magnitude compared to earth-bound telescopes. A huge number of discoveries were made; e.g., imaging of the youngest stars with their dusty disks in the Orion Nebula and the most distant galaxies at redshifts up to z � 6, when the Universe was less than a billion years old. First light as a goal Although the hope for many unforeseeable discoveries had been a driving force behind the development of NGST, its performance specifications were determined by a number of clearly defined scientific goals. The most Fig. IV.1.2: The 6.5 m-mirror of the JWST consists of 18 adjustable individual mirrors. The radiation shield has the size of a tennis court. JWST orbits the Lagrangian Point L2; the Earth and its moon can be seen in the background at a distance of 1.5 million km. Another 150 million km further away is the Sun. important one is the observation of the »first light« in the universe – of the first stars and/or galaxies. Between the earliest image of the universe at an age of 300 000 years after the big bang (at a redshift of z � 1000) and the Hubble Ultra Deep Field with high-redshift galaxies at z � 6, i.e. at a cosmic age of one billion years, lie the hitherto unobserved »dark ages« of the universe (Fig. IV.1.1). During that time the first stars must have formed from the cooling fireball of the universe. Yet, these stars were not like stars we see today: these consisted only of hydrogen and helium and were likely hot (T � 50 000 K) and massive (� 100 solar masses). Owing to their high luminosity the first stars lived very short lives. Many of them exploded as supernovae, thereby enriching the early universe with heavy elements (»metals« – as all elements heavier than helium are called by astronomers) formed within their interiors. Furthermore, since the first stars were very hot, they were able to ionize the neutral gas. With the most sensitive (or »deepest«) images of the universe we have an overview of the last 12 billion years of its evolution. The most distant and therefore youngest galaxies that currently can be observed out to a redshift of z � 6 are already very massive, as is demonstrated very impressively by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Therefore the first galaxies/quasars/stars must have formed much earlier, at z � 8 … 20, i.e. a few hundred million years after the big bang; this is also predicted, in general terms,
y galaxy formation theory. As the universe expanded, the wavelengths of the light emitted originally in the ultraviolet and visible spectral range became longer, shifting into the near- (1 to 5 µm) and mid-infrared (5 to 30 µm) regions. Because of the finite speed of light we now observe the first cosmic objects in the infrared as they looked almost 13 billion years ago in the ultraviolet range. From the visible to the infrared For this reason the Next Generation Space Telescope was planned from the beginning – in 1995 – as an infrared space telescope. In 1997, the inspiring memorandum »Visiting a time when galaxies were young« was published. Here the scientific and technical feasibility of the mission was demonstrated convincingly. Four topics are the guiding principle for the development of JWST and its instruments: (1) First light and re-ionization, (2) formation and evolution of galaxies, (3) birth of stars and protoplanetary systems, and (4) planetary systems and the origins of life. These topics have been translated into a long list of detailed scientific requirements, such as: »measurement of the spatial density of galaxies with a detection limit of 1 3 10 –34 Wm –2 Hz –1 at a wavelength of 2 µm by imaging in the wavelength range from 1.7 to 27 µm and determination of the density variation as a function of age and evolutionary stage (L1-1)«; or »measurement of spectra of at least 2500 galaxies with a spectral resolution of 100 (0.6 to Fig. IV.1.3: A glimpse into the interiors of the star-forming clouds detected in the far-infrared and sub-millimeter range. The high resolution and sensitivity of Miri will allow study of the warm protostars residing within the cold clouds. In the source VLA 1635, e.g., details like dusty disks and beginning continuum sources S1 2 arcmin SM1N SM1 SM2 VLA 1623 LFAM 1 Arc#1 A-S1 � = 450 �m IV.1 Instruments for the James Webb Space Telescope 89 5 µm) and 1000 (1 to 5 µm) with a detection limit of the emission-line flux at 2 µm of 5.2 3 10 –22 Wm –2 and determination of their redshifts, metallicities, star formation rates as well as the degree of ionization of the interstellar medium (L1-2)« … . This list of 40 detailed scientific requirements determined the exact design of the three scientific instruments, the telescope and the planning of the mission. Nircam, NirSpec and miri – the three large scientific instruments The detector of the near-infrared camera (NirCaM) has 40 megapixels and is suitable for the range from 0.6 to 5 µm. The camera can image fields of 4.4 3 2.2 arcminutes in several broad- and narrow-band filters, and can be used as a coronagraph. At the same time it serves as a wavefront sensor for the observatory, measuring the alignment of the 18 mirror pieces of the 6-m-primary mirror. Marcia Rieke of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is in charge of the development of the instrument, which is built by Lockheed-Martin. The targets to be detected include the earliest galaxies and quasars, the most distant supernovae and objects within the Kuiper belt around the Sun. The 6 m-mirror of the JWST will allow acquisition of images of star forming regions and protoplanetary disks – in the dust-penetrating infrared – that will be as sharp as those taken by the smaller Hubble-mirror in the optical range (Fig. IV.1.3). planet formation as well as polar flows will become visible. The picture to the right shows our expectations based on current theoretical models together with the resolving power of Miri (beam) and the orbit of Pluto for comparison. Pluto's orbit MIRI beam circumstellar disk ~ 500 AU jet dusty envelope jet protostar
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Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
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Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
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Contents Preface ..................
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6 I. General I.1 Scientific Goals U
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8 I. General massive protostars and
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10 I. General achieve higher angula
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12 I. General The institute is co-l
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14 I. General Point Source sensitiv
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16 I. General Edinburgh Groningen D
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18 II. Highlights II.1 Light Echoes
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20 II. Highlights 10 arcsec Fig. II
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22 II. Highlights AB Dor C AB Dor A
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24 II. Highlights II.3 The First He
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26 II. Highlights II.4 Planetesimal
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28 II. Highlights azimuthal directi
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30 II. Highlights ticles fall faste
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32 II. Highlights ANTU Seyfert 2 ga
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34 II. Highlights cretion disk, one
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36 II. Highlights 8.5 �m 2.3 ly 0
Page 40 and 41: 38 II. Highlights II.6 Massive Star
Page 42 and 43: 40 II. Highlights log M� /pc2 �
Page 44 and 45: 42 II. Highlights II.7 Observations
Page 46 and 47: 44 II. Highlights log IR luminosity
Page 48 and 49: 46 II.8 Dynamics, Dust, and Young S
Page 50 and 51: 48 II. Highlights and we see a temp
Page 52 and 53: 50 III. Selected Research Areas III
Page 54 and 55: 52 III. Scientific Work Fig. III.1.
Page 56 and 57: 54 III. Scientific Work the Data Ar
Page 58 and 59: 56 III. Scientific Work The Field o
Page 60 and 61: 58 III. Scientific Work lower than
Page 62 and 63: 60 III. Scientific Work
Page 66 and 67: 64 III. Scientific Work z [AU] 1 0
Page 68 and 69: 66 III. Scientific Work line observ
Page 70 and 71: 68 III. Scientific Work log F /mJy
Page 72 and 73: 70 III. Scientific Work Column dens
Page 74 and 75: 72 III.3 The Galaxy-Dark Matter Con
Page 76 and 77: 74 III. Scientific Work redshift su
Page 78 and 79: 76 III. Scientific Work Mocking the
Page 80 and 81: 78 III. Scientific Work tion rate o
Page 82 and 83: 80 III. Scientific Work observed is
Page 84 and 85: 82 III. Scientific Work DDO 53 HO I
Page 88 and 89: 86 III. Scientific Work tribution o
Page 92 and 93: 90 IV. Instrumental Development Nir
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Page 112 and 113: 110 V. People and Events 1� 10�
Page 114 and 115: 112 V. People and Events V.2 Open H
Page 116 and 117: 114 V. People and Events V.3 Furthe
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Page 120 and 121: 118 V. People and Events The IMPRS
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Page 134 and 135: 132 V. People and Events Abb. V.11.
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138 V. People and Events Fig. V.13.
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140 V. People and Events V.14 Where
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142 V. People and Events against sp
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144 Staff Directors: Henning (Actin
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146 Working Groups Rainer Lenzen, H
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148 Cooperation with industrial Fir
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150 Conferences Conferences and Mee
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152 Conferences D. Lemke: JWST-miri
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154 Conferences/Service in Comitees
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156 Publications Szalay, I. Szapudi
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158 Publications Hamilton, C. M., W
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160 Publications Brinkmann, D. G. Y
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162 Publications Zheng, X. Z., F. H
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164 Publications of the wheel mecha
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166 Publications ASP Conf. Ser. 331
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The Max Planck Society The Max Plan
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