2,339 research outputs found
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Life History of Ralph W. Spitzer
No full textA detailed biographical sketch of Ralph W. Spitzer (b. 1918), a graduate student of Linus Pauling's and promising academic who joined the Oregon State College chemistry department in 1946. Promoted to Assistant Professor in 1947, Spitzer was nonetheless fired from the OSC faculty in 1949 by President August L. Strand, almost certainly because of progressive political views espoused by Spitzer and his wife Teresa. Spitzer eventually matriculated to Canada where he earned an M.D. specializing in chemical pathology and co-founded a successful diagnostic laboratory firm, C.J. Coady Associates.
The paper is based upon a series of oral history interviews conducted by the author with Ralph Spitzer, his daughter Eloise Spitzer, and his wife Hisako Kurotaki
SERENDIPITOUS DISCOVERY OF AN INFRARED BOW SHOCK NEAR PSR J1549-4848 WITH SPITZER
No full textWe report on the discovery of an infrared cometary nebula around PSR J1549-4848 in our Spitzer survey of a few middle-aged radio pulsars. Following the discovery, multi-wavelength imaging and spectroscopic observations of the nebula were carried out. We detected the nebula in Spitzer Infrared Array Camera 8.0, Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer 24 and 70 mu m imaging, and in Spitzer IRS 7.5-14.4 mu m spectroscopic observations, and also in the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer all-sky survey at 12 and 22 mu m. These data were analyzed in detail, and we find that the nebula can be described with a standard bow shock shape, and that its spectrum contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and H-2 emission features. However, it is not certain which object drives the nebula. We analyze the field stars and conclude that none of them can be the associated object because stars with a strong wind or mass ejection that usually produce bow shocks are much brighter than the field stars. The pulsar is approximately 15 '' away from the region in which the associated object is expected to be located. In order to resolve the discrepancy, we suggest that a highly collimated wind could be emitted from the pulsar and produce the bow shock. X-ray imaging to detect the interaction of the wind with the ambient medium-and high-spatial resolution radio imaging to determine the proper motion of the pulsar should be carried out, which will help verify the association of the pulsar with the bow shock nebula
The Spitzer Bibliography Database: bibliographic statistics
No full textThe Spitzer Science Center maintains a database of peer-refereed publications utilizing observations made by the Spitzer Space Telescope5. Originally intended as a way to easily track these publications with limited resources, the database has grown in scope to provide more services for investigators. The design and population of the system and some interesting insights into the use of Spitzer data are presented
Scheduling Spitzer: The SIRPASS Story
No full textNASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was launched on August 25, 2003 from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Base. Drifting in a unique Earth-trailing orbit around the Sun, Spitzer sees an optically invisible universe dominated by dust and stars. Since 1997, the Spitzer Integrated Resource Planning and Scheduling System (SIRPASS) has helped produce spacecraft activity plans for the Spitzer Space Telescope. SIRPASS is used by members of the Observatory Planning and Scheduling Team to plan, schedule and sequence the Telescope from data made available to them from the science and engineering community. Because of the volume of data that needs to be scheduled, SIRPASS offers a variety of automated assistants to aid in this task. This paper will describe the functional elements of the SIRPASS software system -- emphasizing the role that automation plays in the system -- and will highlight lessons learned for the software developer from a decade of Spitzer Space Telescope operations experience
SPITZER IMAGING OF HERSCHEL-ATLAS GRAVITATIONALLY LENSED SUBMILLIMETER SOURCES
No full textWe present physical properties of two submillimeter selected gravitationally lensed sources, identified in the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey. These submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) have flux densities >100 mJy at 500 μm, but are not visible in existing optical imaging. We fit light profiles to each component of the lensing systems in Spitzer IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 μm data and successfully disentangle the foreground lens from the background source in each case, providing important constraints on the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the background SMG at rest-frame optical–near-infrared wavelengths. The SED fits show that these two SMGs have high dust obscuration with Aᵥ ∼ 4–5 and star formation rates of ∼100Mꙩ yr⁻¹. They have low gas fractions and low dynamical masses compared with 850 μm selected galaxies
SPRITE: the Spitzer proposal review website
No full textThe Spitzer Science Center (SSC), located on the campus of the California Institute of Technology, supports the science operations of NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope. The SSC issues an annual Call for Proposals inviting investigators worldwide to submit Spitzer Space Telescope proposals. The Spitzer Proposal Review Website (SPRITE) is a MySQL/PHP web database application designed to support the SSC proposal review process. Review panel members use the software to view, grade, and write comments about the proposals, and SSC support team members monitor the grading and ranking process and ultimately generate a ranked list of all the proposals. The software is also used to generate, edit, and email award letters to the proposers. This work was performed at the California Institute of Technology under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Spitzer Heritage Archive
No full textThe Spitzer Heritage Archive will host all the raw and final reprocessed science and calibration data products from the observations made by Spitzer Space Telescope. The interactive web interface will give users the tools to search the database and explore their search results interactively. We also reuse the existing software and services and pay close attention to the re-usability of the newly developed system, making it easy to expand and adopt new technology in the future. This paper discusses our design principles, system architecture, reuse of the existing software, and reusable components of the system
Design of the Spitzer Space Telescope Heritage Archive
No full textIt is predicted that Spitzer Space Telescope’s cryogen will run out in April 2009, and the final reprocessing for the cryogenic mission is scheduled to end in April 2011, at which time the Spitzer archive will be transferred to the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) for long-term curation. The Spitzer Science Center (SSC) and IRSA are collaborating to design and deploy the Spitzer Heritage Archive (SHA), which will supersede the current Spitzer archive. It will initially contain the raw and final reprocessed cryogenic science products, and will eventually incorporate the final products from the Warm mission. The SHA will be accompanied by tools deemed necessary to extract the full science content of the archive and by comprehensive documentation
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Dust Around R Coronae Borealis Stars. I. Spitzer/Infrared Spectrograph Observations
No full textSpitzer/infrared spectrograph (IRS) spectra from 5 to 37 mu m for a complete sample of 31 R Coronae Borealis stars (RCBs) are presented. These spectra are combined with optical and near-infrared photometry of each RCB at maximum light to compile a spectral energy distribution (SED). The SEDs are fitted with blackbody flux distributions and estimates are made of the ratio of the infrared flux from circumstellar dust to the flux emitted by the star. Comparisons for 29 of the 31 stars are made with the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) fluxes from three decades earlier: Spitzer and IRAS fluxes at 12 mu m and 25 mu m are essentially equal for all but a minority of the sample. For this minority, the IRAS to Spitzer flux ratio exceeds a factor of three. The outliers are suggested to be stars where formation of a dust cloud or dust puff is a rare event. A single puff ejected prior to the IRAS observations may have been reobserved by Spitzer as a cooler puff at a greater distance from the RCB. RCBs which experience more frequent optical declines have, in general, a circumstellar environment containing puffs subtending a larger solid angle at the star and a quasi-constant infrared flux. Yet, the estimated subtended solid angles and the blackbody temperatures of the dust show a systematic evolution to lower solid angles and cooler temperatures in the interval between IRAS and Spitzer. Dust emission by these RCBs and those in the LMC is similar in terms of total 24 mu m luminosity and [8.0]-[24.0] color index.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) AYA-2007-64748NASA GO 50212, 1407Robert A. Welch Foundation of Houston, Texas F-634McDonald Observator
Spitzer warm mission transition and operations
No full textFollowing the successful dynamic planning and implementation of IRAC Warm Instrument Characterization activities, transition to Spitzer Warm Mission operations has gone smoothly. Operation teams procedures and processes required minimal adaptation and the overall composition of the Mission Operation System retained the same functionality it had during the Cryogenic Mission. While the warm mission scheduling has been simplified because all observations are now being made with a single instrument, several other differences have increased the complexity. The bulk of the observations executed to date have been from ten large Exploration Science programs that, combined, have more complex constraints, more observing requests, and more exo-planet observations with durations of up to 145 hours. Communication with the observatory is also becoming more challenging as the Spitzer DSN antenna allocations have been reduced from two tracking passes per day to a single pass impacting both uplink and downlink activities. While IRAC is now operating with only two channels, the data collection rate is roughly 60% of the four-channel rate leaving a somewhat higher average volume collected between the less frequent passes. Also, the maximum downlink data rate is decreasing as the distance to Spitzer increases requiring longer passes. Nevertheless, with well over 90% of the time spent on science observations, efficiency has equaled or exceeded that achieved during the cryogenic mission
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