From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Thu Mar 13 2003 - 13:45:11 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: cunews_at_cornell.edu
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 4:16 PM
To: CUNEWS-PHYSICAL_SCIENCE-L_at_cornell.edu; CUNEWS-SCIENCE-L_at_cornell.edu
Subject: Cornell News: Space telescope arrives at Cape
Space infrared telescope carrying Cornell-designed infrared
spectrograph arrives at Cape Canaveral
FOR RELEASE: March 13, 2003
Contact: Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
Office: 607-255-3290
E-mail: bpf2_at_cornell.edu
ITHACA, N.Y. -- All ready to begin its search for the earliest,
coldest and dirtiest parts of the cosmos, the Space Infrared
Telescope Facility (SIRTF) arrived March 6 at the Kennedy Space
Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla. It is scheduled for launch Tuesday,
April 15, at 4:34:07 a.m. aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket.
One of the three instruments carried by the observatory is an
infrared spectrograph (IRS) designed by Cornell University
researchers and built by Ball Aerospace.
Final tests on the IRS to verify its safe passage to Florida from
Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, Calif., will be carried out by the
principal investigator on the spectrograph, James R. Houck, the J.A.
Wallace Professor of Astronomy at Cornell.
The orbiting telescope, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., is the last mission of NASA's Great Observatories
program, which includes the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray
Observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The IRS will peer
into deep regions of the universe not visible optically. The IRS, it
is hoped, will provide clues to the youngest parts of the heavens and
show astronomers when star and galaxy formation began. Houck says
the IRS can penetrate obscuring dust in the dirtiest parts of the
cosmos and observe ultrafrigid, newly forming stars in the coldest
regions of the universe. "For every question we answer, we dredge up
three more," says Houck. "We're still in the process of finding out
just how ignorant we are."
The observatory will trail the Earth in its orbit around the sun,
with the instruments functioning in an environment where temperatures
are slightly above absolute zero (-273 degrees Centigrade or -460
degrees Fahrenheit). With no moving parts, the IRS consists of two
physically separated sections. The IRS cold assemblies are located
within the SIRTF multiple-instrument chamber, and the warm
electronics are in the SIRTF spacecraft bus. The spectrometer
spreads light in wavelengths to create spectra, within which
astronomers can study the atomic and molecular fingerprints found
deep in the universe.
The idea of peering deep into the cold regions of the cosmos with an
infrared spectrograph goes back more than three decades. Astronomers
had found intense infrared radiation in the universe in 1968. Three
years later a team of Cornell astronomers, led by Martin Harwit, now
a Cornell emeritus professor of astronomy, and by Houck, then an
assistant professor, sent rocket-borne instruments, cooled with
liquid helium, about 118 miles above Earth. They learned that the
distant, cosmic radiation was 20 times more intense than previously
thought.
In 1978 Houck conducted infrared experiments from airplanes. It was
then that he and his colleagues persuaded NASA there was an
opportunity for placing a great telescope into space to study the
infrared band of the spectrum, and perhaps uncover previously unseen
parts of the universe. NASA agreed and sent out a request for
proposals in 1983. In April 1984, Houck received the space agency
award. That award, after several design and mission changes, has
become the IRS.
According to NASA, SIRTF is scheduled to arrive at Pad 17-B on April
2 and will spend approximately two weeks atop the Delta rocket. The
payload fairing will be placed around the telescope April 5. Then
the observatory's dewar, used to cool the detectors and optical
elements, will be cryogenically topped off with super-cold liquid
helium to its maximum capacity of 360 liters (90 gallons), chilled to
near absolute zero. This will increase the detectors' sensitivity to
infrared light. Filling the spacecraft dewar will take approximately
six days. Finally, two days before launch, according to NASA, the
Delta launch vehicle's second stage will be fueled.
Houck says he cannot wait to see what surprises lurk in the deep
reaches of the cosmos. "The real payoff will be the discoveries we
didn't anticipate. They'll be startling, and as astronomers, we'll
ask ourselves, 'why didn't we think of that?'" he says.
Related World Wide Web sites: The following site provides
additional information on this news release. It is not part of the
Cornell University community, and Cornell has no control over its
content or availability.
o SIRTF: <http://sirtf.caltech.edu/index.html>
-30-
The web version of this release may be found at
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March03/SIRTF.delivery.bpf.html
Cornell University News Service
Surge 3
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-4206
cunews_at_cornell.edu
http://www.news.cornell.edu
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