Infrared astronomy is a sub-discipline of astronomy which specializes in the observation and analysis of astronomical objects using infrared (IR) radiation. The wavelength of infrared light ranges from 0.75 to 300 micrometers, and falls in between visible radiation, which ranges from 380 to 750 nanometers, and submillimeter waves.
The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003. Operations ended on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was the third space telescope dedicated to infrared astronomy, following IRAS (1983) and ISO (1995–1998). It was the first spacecraft to use an Earth-trailing orbit, later used by the Kepler planet-finder.
28978 Ixion (, provisional designation 2001 KX76) is a large trans-Neptunian object and a possible dwarf planet. It is located in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy objects orbiting beyond Neptune in the outer Solar System. Ixion is classified as a plutino, a dynamical class of objects in a 2:3 orbital resonance with Neptune. It was discovered in May 2001 by astronomers of the Deep Ecliptic Survey at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, and was announced in July 2001. The object is named after the Greek mythological figure Ixion, who was a king of the Lapiths.
Orcus is a trans-Neptunian dwarf planet with a large moon, Vanth. It has a diameter of 870 to 960 km, the size of or somewhat smaller than the asteroid Ceres. The surface of Orcus is relatively bright with albedo reaching 23 percent, neutral in color and rich in water ice. The ice is predominantly in crystalline form, which may be related to past cryovolcanic activity. Other compounds like methane or ammonia may also be present on its surface. Orcus was discovered by American astronomers Michael Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz on 17 February 2004.
The Sombrero Galaxy is a peculiar galaxy of unclear classification in the constellation borders of Virgo and Corvus, being about 9.55 megaparsecs from the Milky Way galaxy. It is a member of the Virgo II Groups, a series of galaxies and galaxy clusters strung out from the southern edge of the Virgo Supercluster. It has an isophotal diameter of approximately 29.09 to 32.32 kiloparsecs, making it slightly bigger in size than the Milky Way.
The Herschel Space Observatory was a space observatory built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). It was active from 2009 to 2013, and was the largest infrared telescope ever launched until the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021. Herschel carries a 3.5-metre (11.5 ft) mirror and instruments sensitive to the far infrared and submillimetre wavebands (55–672 µm). Herschel was the fourth and final cornerstone mission in the Horizon 2000 programme, following SOHO/Cluster II, XMM-Newton and Rosetta.
The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is a submillimetre-wavelength radio telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, US. The telescope is near the summit of Mauna Kea at 13,425 feet (4,092 m). Its primary mirror is 15 metres across: it is the largest single-dish telescope that operates in submillimetre wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Scientists use it to study the Solar System, interstellar dust and gas, and distant galaxies.
HD 210277 is a single star in the equatorial constellation of Aquarius. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 6.54, which makes it a challenge to view with the naked eye, but it is easily visible in binoculars. The star is located at a distance of 69.5 light years from the Sun based on parallax, but is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −20.9 km/s.
Submillimetre astronomy or submillimeter astronomy is the branch of observational astronomy that is conducted at submillimetre wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers place the submillimetre waveband between the far-infrared and microwave wavebands, typically taken to be between a few hundred micrometres and a millimetre. It is still common in submillimetre astronomy to quote wavelengths in 'microns', the old name for micrometre.
OTS 44 is a free-floating planetary-mass object or brown dwarf located at 550 light-years (170 pc) in the constellation Chamaeleon near the reflection nebula IC 2631. It is among the lowest-mass free-floating substellar objects, with approximately 11.5 times the mass of Jupiter, or approximately 1.1% that of the Sun. Its radius is not very well known and is estimated to be 23–57% that of the Sun.
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 2011, before being re-activated in 2013 and renamed the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE). WISE discovered thousands of minor planets and numerous star clusters. Its observations also supported the discovery of the first Y-type brown dwarf and Earth trojan asteroid.
APM 08279+5255 is a very distant, broad absorption line quasar located in the constellation Lynx. It is magnified and split into multiple images by the gravitational lensing effect of a foreground galaxy through which its light passes. It appears to be a giant elliptical galaxy with a supermassive black hole and associated accretion disk. It possesses large regions of hot dust and molecular gas, as well as regions with starburst activity.
Exozodiacal dust is 1–100 micrometre-sized grains of amorphous carbon and silicate dust that fill the plane of extrasolar planetary systems. It is the exoplanetary analog of zodiacal dust, the 1–100 micrometre-sized dust grains observed in the solar system, especially interior to the asteroid belt. As with the zodiacal dust, these grains are probably produced by outgassing comets, as well as by collisions among bigger parent bodies like asteroids. Exozodiacal dust clouds are often components of debris disks that are detected around main-sequence stars through their excess infrared emission. Particularly hot exozodiacal disks are also commonly found near spectral type A-K stars. By convention, exozodiacal dust refers to the innermost and hottest part of these debris disks, within a few astronomical units of the star. How exozodiacal dust is so prevalent this close to stars is a subject of debate with several competing theories attempting to explain the phenomenon. The shapes of exozodiacal dust clouds can show the dynamical influence of extrasolar planets, and potentially indicate the presence of these planets. Because it is often located near a star's habitable zone, exozodiacal dust can be an important noise source for attempts to image terrestrial planets. Around 1 in 100 stars in the nearby solar systems shows a high content of warm dust that is around 1000 times greater than the average dust emission in the 8.5–12 μm range.
The Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), was a proposed infrared space telescope, follow-on to the successful Akari space observatory. It was a collaboration between European and Japanese scientists, which was selected in May 2018 by the European Space Agency (ESA) as a finalist for the next Medium class Mission 5 (M5) of the Cosmic Vision programme, to launch in 2032. At the time the other two finalists were THESEUS and EnVision, with the latter that was eventually selected for further development. SPICA would have improved on the spectral line sensitivity of previous missions, the Spitzer and Herschel space telescopes, between 30 and 230 µm by a factor of 50—100.
HD 95086 b, formally named Levantes, is a confirmed, directly imaged exoplanet orbiting the young, 17 Myr A-class pre-main-sequence star HD 95086. It is roughly 5 times as massive as Jupiter and orbits about 70 AU away from the parent star. It was detected at thermal infrared wavelengths (3.8 μm) through direct imaging, using the NACO instrument on the VLT. A debris disk has been detected in this system at submillimeter wavelengths and has been resolved in the far-infrared from data obtained with the Herschel Space Observatory.
SAFIR is a proposed NASA space observatory for far-infrared light. The plan calls for a single large mirror 5–10 meters (16–33 ft) in diameter, cryogenically cooled to 5 kelvins. This would feed detector arrays sensitive from 5 to 1000 µm. The possibility of servicing such a telescope in space has been evaluated.
Origins Space Telescope (Origins) is a concept study for a far-infrared survey space telescope mission. A preliminary concept in pre-formulation, it was presented to the United States Decadal Survey in 2019 for a possible selection to NASA's large strategic science missions. Origins would provide an array of new tools for studying star formation and the energetics and physical state of the interstellar medium within the Milky Way using infrared radiation and new spectroscopic capabilities.
A circumplanetary disk is a torus, pancake or ring-shaped accumulation of matter composed of gas, dust, planetesimals, asteroids or collision fragments in orbit around a planet. Around the planets, they are the reservoirs of material out of which moons may form. Such a disk can manifest itself in various ways.
Dominique Bockelée-Morvan is a French astrophysicist and planetary scientist specializing in the molecular composition of comets. She is a director of research for the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), affiliated with the Paris Observatory, and a former president of Commission 15 on the Physical Study of Comets & Minor Planets of the International Astronomical Union.
