NASA Facts
n Educational Publication
of the
National eronautics
and Space dministration
NF 139
IRAS:
Mapping the Infrared Sky
ORIGIN L P CE
COLOR PHOTOGR PH
Each
day
as
it looks outward from Earth orbit into
deep
space,
the Infrared Astronomical Satellite
IRAS)
discovers
thousands of new
sources
never before
seen
in the infrared.
One source
might be a distant galaxy whose radiation is too
faint to
appear to
all but
this
most sensitive of infrared tele-
scopes.
Another might be a dying
st r
whose visible flame is
burning out, but whose warm infrared glow is still enough to
be detected by IRAS.
The image shown
here
was reconstructed from
data
sentback
by the
international
IRAS
sates; to during the first
weeks
of its operaticn. In
a scan
across the Large Magellanic Cloud,
the nearest
galaxy to our own, WAS recorded dozens of
infrared
sources s seen
in four separate wavelength bands.The short wavelength scan reveals many individual hot
stars
in the region. (Hotter regions appear lighter.) As the observingwavelength
gets
higher, though, the scan reveals coolerobjects, until we see an extended cloud o cool dust and gas.
This cloud is part of a nebula called 30 Doradus (for its loca-tion ;n the constellation Dorado), nicknamed the Tarantula by
astronomers.
The cloud is
a
giant region of ionized hydrogengas and dust, whose existence was known before IRAS, butwhich had never before been
seen
in
such
illuminating detail.
Scanning
the
whole sky from January to
December,
1983,
the
goal
of the IRAS project is
to
find whatever is out there
radiating infrared it the universe. When
the
survey is finished,
IRAS
may,
as
only a few projects really can, contribute to afundamental change in our understanding of
nature.
ORIGIN L P GE
COLOR PHOTOGRAPH
Because our vision is tuned to the particular lighting condi
tions of our own planet Earth, we see only a few of the many
"colors" of the universe. Most of the electromagnetic spec-
trum is invisible to the human eye—radio waves, ultraviolet,x-rays, gamma rays
r
nd the infrared wavelengths just below
the threshold of signt.
Although the energy of radian heat glows all around us, it
was not until a simple, intuitive experiment by the astronomerSir William Herschel in 1800 that it was recognized as a natu-ral part of the continuous spectrum of electromagnetic energy.
While experimenting with the heating properties of different
colors, Herschel noted that his thermometer measured thehighest temperatures when he placed it beyond the red regionof a prism spectrum, in an area where apparently there was
no light. He had discovered "calorific rays"—what we know
today as infrared.
In Herschel's own century astronomers used thermo-couples—devices that convert heat to electric current—todetect this invisible infrared radiation from space. The Moon
was first observed in this way in 1856, and by the early twen-tieth century most of the bright visible objects in the sky hadalso been observed in parts of the infrared. By the 1960s, thesame decade that saw a boom in radio, x-ray, and ultravioletastronomies, infrared observers began to benefit from new
techniques, particularly the use of supercooled (cryogenic)
detectors. Infrared telescopes were moved to higher and drierlocations, and observers lofted their sensors by balloon,
rocket, and airplane above the infrared-absorbing water of our
atmosphere.A few preliminary surveys of the infrared sky, beginning in1968 with the California Institute of Technology short-wave-length survey at 2 microns for northern latitudes, cataloguedmany new sources. A similar, though less complete, surveyfrom a New Zealand observatory in the same
ye r
revealed
some of the brightest infrared objects in the southern sky.These were to be followed in the 1970s by the U.S. Air Forcesurvey with rockets at longer wavelengths, up to about 30microns, and, with the Naval Research Laboratory. the FarInfrared Space Experiment which observed at the still longerwavelength of 100 microns.Until 1983, however, there was no attempt to take a com-plete inventory of the major infrared emitters in the universe.This is the task of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS),launched on January 25, 1983. An international effort involvingthe United States. United Kingdom, and The Netherlands, IRAS
is performing the first all-sky survey in a wide range of infra-
red wavelengths with a sensitivity 100 to 1000 times greaterthan any previous work. At the end of nearly a year of obser-vation from Earth orbit, IRAS data will be used to produce a
comprehensive catalog and maps of significant infrared
sources in the universe
An artist s conception of the IRAS
satellite
in orbit shows
one
of its
solar
panels and its Earth pointing communications antenna.
lntemationat MAS scienc s team
ED STATES
artmut Aumann
,let Propulsion Laboratory
Dr.
Nancy Boggess
NASA Headquarters
Dr. Frail
GillettKitt
Peak
National Observa
Dr.
Michael Hauser
Goddard Space A gm
cen
Dr.
James Houck
Correll University
Dr. Frank Low
tiversity of Arizona
Dr. Gerry Ncugebauer California Institute of Technology
Co-chairman, JISWG
Califomia Institute
of
Titcl-wu
y
Jamieson EngineeringUniversity of GroningenRadio Astronomy Observatory
at Dw ,ngelooUniversity of Amsterdam.
Huygens Laboratory. Leiden.Co-chairman, JISWGAstronomical Observatory
Kapteyn at Rooen
ti
University of Groningen
l
ueen
Mary College
University :allege London
University of Leeds
Dr. B. Tom Soifer
Dr. Russell Walker
THE NETHERLANDS
Dr.
Douwe Beintema
Dr.
Jan BorgmanDr. Teiie de JongDr. Harm HabingDr. Stewart Pottasch
Or Paul Wesselius
UNITED KINGDOM
Dr. Peter Clegg
Prof. Richard JenningsProf. Phillip Marsden
3mmarays
Virtually everything radiates in the infrared Astronomicalobjects generally emit their energy over a wide range of wave-lengths, and the hotter an object is, the more its energy output
is concentrated at th-3 short end of the spectrum. Hot stars
therefore appear blue (short waves) while cooler stars are red.When an object is not quite hot enough to shine in visible lightit emits the bulk of its energy in the infrared, like a stove burnerbefore it begins to glow red hot. Infrared astronomy is thus thestudy of relatively cool objects below about 6000° Kelvin(10,000°F) that astronomers believe account for a signifi-cant amount of the universe's total energy output.Aside from the ability to detect cool objects, there are otheradvantages to observing the universe in the infrared. Betweenthe stars of our galaxy there is a large amount of cosmic dustthat effectively blocks out light at visible wavelengths, becausethese particular waves are about the same size as the dustparticles The interstellar dust is especially thick in the plane
of cu
galaxy, so that visible light coming from the Milky Way'scenter is reduced by a factor of ten billion by the time itreaches Earth. Not so with the longer waves of infrared, whichare reduced by only one tenth. Because of this relative trans-parency, infrared astronomy is ideal for studying the brightand dense core of the Milky Way.In addition, certain changes in energy state within hotgasses and interstellar clouds of molecules have their signa-ture in the infrared spectrum. By studying emissions fromthese regions it is possible to reconstruct the type of chemistrytaking place there.With all of this scientific information contained in photons ofinfrared light it is annoying, at least for astronomy, that after bil-lions of miles of generally unimpeded travel from the far partsof the universe most of them are blocked just as they reachEarth. Water and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere absorb thebulk of infrared radiation from space. Only a few wavelengthsmake it through to the ground in narrow observational win-
dows centered at 1.25, 1.65, 2.2, 3.5, 4.75, 10.5, 19.5, 35, 350,
and 800 microns. Even at these transparent windows thereare problems—the air above us glows brightly in the infrared,so even on the darkest nights infrared astronomers mustresort to techniques like nodding their telescopes back andforth to sort out sky noise from astronomical sources.The solution is to orbit an infrared telescope above theatmosphere where it is exposed to pure, unfiltered radiationand can survey the whole sky, north and south, even at wave-lengths between the ground-based windows. This is the pur-
pose of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite.
The IRAS Project
Like many of the ventures into space planned for the 1980s
and 1990s, IRAS features international cooperation. The
Netherlands Aerospace Agency (NIVR) supervised the designand manufacture of the spacecraft bus that supports andpowers the main telescope, and the University of Groningenprovided a Dutch Additional Experiment package.The Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Labora-tory (JPL), both in California, developed the infrared telescopefor NASA. JPL is also processing IRAS data into final infraredcatalogs and maps. The United Kingdom contributes to theproject through its Science and Engineering Research Coun-cil by tracking the satellite and receiving its radioed data.
The Infrared Spectrum
The electromagnetic spectrum is divided into several cate-gories of radiation, each with different wavelengths (Figure 3).At one end are the low-energy radio waves with wavelengthsup to tens of thousands of meters. At the other end are thegamma rays whose wavelengths are smaller than the dia-meter of an atom. The smaller the wavelength, the greater theenergy of the radiation.Between these two extremes lies the infrared region, withwavelengths from one millimeter (the shortest radio waves) toapproximately 0.8 microns (.0008 millimeters), the longestwaves of visible red light. The familiar infrared heat photo-graphs are made by films sensitive to only the shortest waves
closest to visible light
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
t r
0 cm
Cm
mm
mm
0 microns
micron
000
00 0
b
11000 microns),
100 microns)
ORIGINAL PAGECOLOR PHOTOGRAPH
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