Department of Physics

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Winter Seminar Series

Presentation by:

Rene Jacome
California State University East Bay

Title:

Eye on the Sky - Infrared Astronomy and ATV-1 'Jules Verne'

Abstract:

Despite the fact that infrared radiation was discovered in 1800, it has only risen to prominence in astronomy within the last few decades. The primary limitations during early infrared astronomy was the insensitivity of the detectors and the limited wavelengths available for astronomers due to heavy atmospheric absorption in the mid to far infrared (as well as emission in the near-IR atmospheric windows). But the major catalysts for the recent interest in infrared astronomy was the success of the first space-based infrared telescope - Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), and infrared detector arrays which developed rapidly through the 80s and 90s, providing astronomers with a very sensitive and efficient (at producing images) IR detector. While working at NASA AMES Research Center, I was able to analyze the effects of a simulated exposure to ionizing radiation on an infrared detector array intended for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) - the successor to the Hubble space telescope when it is launched ~2011.
Following a successful mission to resupply the International Space Station with vital resources, the ATV-1 'Jules Verne' (Automated Transfer Vehicle) began its descent back into Earth's atmosphere, in a planned destructive re-entry over the Pacific. The re-entry was observed by an international team of scientists aboard two jets, a Gulfstream V and the NASA DC-8 Airborne Laboratory, traveling at high altitude (~40km). Professor Christopher Kitting (Biology Department) and I were aboard the NASA DC-8 Airborne Laboratory equipped with 5 cameras (3 Video and 2 Stills) aimed at the smaller, trailing fragments of the disinigrating ATV. This talk will then focus on the logistics and relevant science involved in the mission, my own anecdotes , and finally showcase some data taken from the disintegrating ATV.