Past Events in 2016
SOFIA Community Day at Arizona
The goal of the SOFIA Community Day Workshop is to provide information and support to local astronomers to help them prepare and submit excellent observing proposals in response to the Cycle 5 call. Scientists from the SOFIA Science Center will provide a series of presentations about the observatory capabilities, instrumentation, and the proposal preparation process. There will be plenty of time for Q&A and hands-on time to work with proposal tools and the data archive. The workshop will be suitable for novices and experienced IR observers.
Multi-Physics, Multi-Scale Simulations of Star Formation: A Hierarchical Approach from Large Scale Turbulent Magnetized Clouds to Stellar Clusters
The origin and formation of stellar clusters remains a fundamental grand challenge in astrophysics that requires complex multi-physics simulations that must include a large range of coupled physical processes, including: self-gravity; supersonic turbulence; hydrodynamics; outflows; radiation and magnetic fields.
High Resolution ALMA Imaging of Arp 220 and Evolution of the ISM and Star Formation in the Early Universe
The new Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) consists of 64 high frequency mm/submm telescopes located in Northern Chile at 16,500 ft. It has now been in operation four years. I will present new imaging of the UltraLuminous IR galaxy Arp 220 at 90 mas resolution and our survey of interstellar gas contents of galaxies in 150 galaxies at z = 1 to 4.
The High ORbit Ultraviolet-visible Satellite, HORUS
The High-ORbit Ultraviolet-visible Satellite (HORUS) is a 2.4-meter Probe-class space telescope concept designed to conduct a comprehensive and systematic study of the astrophysical processes and environments relevant for the births and life cycles of stars and their planetary systems, to investigate and understand the range of environments, feedback mechanisms, and other factors that most affect the outcome of the star and planet formation process.
Astrochemistry with SOFIA
Abstract:
In this talk I shall describe how SOFIA is helping us to study star forming molecular clouds and the chemical/physical processes within them. Special attention will be given to deuterated light molecular ions and their importance to estimate the chemical age of dense clouds.
Missing Baryons and Metals Around Galaxies: Hot Gaseous Halos and Dust
A census of the stars and warm/cool gas in the Local Universe reveals that they account for only half of the baryons in the universe and about 10% of the metals. It is suggested that the missing baryons lie in hot gaseous extended halos around galaxies (1-5E6 K) as well as in the unvirialized cosmic web. We detect these hot halos around the Milky Way and external galaxies and find that, within the virial radius, the gaseous halos have masses comparable to the stellar masses, but still fall short of accounting for the missing baryons.
Far-IR Cooling in Massive Star-Forming Regions: a Case Study of G5.89-0.39
In this talk, I will show far-IR observations of the massive star forming region G5.89-0.39 with SOFIA and Herschel in key species for the cooling such as OI, CII, CO, H2O and OH. Contrary to the results obtained with PACS, we find that in G5.89-0.39 OI is the main contributor to the cooling at high-velocities, while CO dominates only close to the rest velocities. Water seems to be a minor contributor to the total cooling even in the outflowing gas.
From the Big Bang to the End of the Universe, and How we’ll Learn More with the James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope, planned for launch in October 2018, will be the most powerful space telescope ever built.
The Curious Chemistry of Hot Core G35.20-0.74N
Hot molecular cores are an early stage of high mass star formation where high abundances of complex organic molecules can be observed in compact (<0.05 pc), hot (>100 K), dense (>107 cm-3) sources. These objects are empirically defined, so it is unclear whether the molecular emission arises from a disk, the inner envelope, or outflow cavity walls. We have analyzed ALMA Cycle 0 observations of G35.20-0.74N, a high mass star forming region containing two hot cores, one of which shows strong evidence of a Keplerian disk (Sanchez-Monge et al 2013).
The Water Vapor Monitor Instrument of SOFIA
Although SOFIA flies above greater than 95% of the Earth's atmospheric water vapor, the residual water can still affect the infrared signals seen by the SOFIA science instruments. A small dedicated instrument has been developed to measure this residual water vapor so that the astronomical IR signals can be properly corrected. The Water Vapor Monitor is permanently mounted in the upper deck of the SOFIA aircraft and observes the 183 GHz atmospheric water line in emission through a custom window.
SOFIA/GREAT [CII] observations in nearby clouds near the lines of sight towards B0355+508 and B0212+735
We present SOFIA/GREAT [CII] observations of nearby clouds near the lines of sight towards to quasars. These clouds have been studied in various tracers, originally as part of an extensive mm-wave absorption study by Lucas, Pety and Liszt. From these studies, the clouds were categorized as diffuse clouds and the small scale structure visible in CO was interpreted as chemical variations inside the clouds. The fact that SOFIA/GREAT failed to detect [CII] at the predicted intensity by at least a factor of 7 is in contradiction with this interpretation.
FIFI-LS Science Observations
FIFI-LS has flown 6 flight series, including one southern deployment. In this tele-talk, we present the current status of FIFI-LS, the successes of our data pipeline, and some of the new science results. We will discuss the large maps of the Orion Nebula in several far infrared cooling lines of ionic, atomic, and molecular species. These data enable a detailed study of the heating and cooling in the closest massive star forming region, providing some early results of analyzing the diagnostic fine-structure line ratios, gas and dust temperatures.
Pluto Occultation with SOFIA on 29 June 2015 in Support of the New Horizons Flyby: Occultation Evidence for Haze
I will report for the Amanda Bosh et al team on the highly successful Pluto occultation of a bright star (R~12mag) on 29 June 2015 with four instruments on SOFIA. The SOFIA Aircraft was deployed from Christchurch New Zealand. Observations were performed at four wavelengths from 0.4 to 1.8 microns. Pre-event astrometry allowed for an in-flight update to the SOFIA team with the result that SOFIA was deep within the central flash zone.
Magnetic Field Strengths and Grain Alignment Variations in the Local Bubble Wall
Optical and infrared continuum polarization is known to be due to irregular dust grains aligned with the local magnetic field. This provides an important tool to probe the geometry and strength of those magnetic fields, particularly if the variations in the grain alignment efficiencies can be understood. In this study we combined archival photometric and spectroscopic data with the polarization survey of the North Galactic cap from Berdyugin et al. (2014), comparing it to the mapping of the Local Bubble by Lallement et al.
Infrared Observations of the Quintuplet Proper Members with SOFIA/FORCAST and Gemini/TreCS
We present 19.7, 25.2, 31.5, and 37.1 micron observations of the Quintuplet proper members (with an angular resolution of 3.2-3.8”) taken with the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) in conjunction with archival high-resolution (∼0.1-0.2”) mid-infrared images from the Thermal-Region Camera Spectrograph (TReCS). Since their discovery, the Quintuplet proper members have been somewhat mysterious in nature.
Mapping PAH sizes in NGC 7023 with SOFIA
We present the unique capabilities of SOFIA to map the sizes of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) using the FORCAST and FLITECAM instruments. We create maps of the 11.2/3.3 µm ratio to probe the morphology of the PAH size distribution and the 8.0/11.2 µm ratio to probe the PAH ionization. The PAH sizes are obtained by making use of an emission model and of vibrational spectra from the NASA Ames PAH database.
The SPHEREx All-Sky Spectroscopic Survey
SPHEREx is a mission to conduct an optical-near-IR survey of the entire sky with a spectrum at every pixel location.
Probing the Large-Scale Multiphase ISM in 30 Doradus in the LMC with SOFIA/FIFI LS
The 30 Doradus region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) offers one of the best laboratories to examine in detail the interplay between stellar activity and a metal-poor interstellar medium (ISM). The Herschel/PACS and SPIRE/FTS observations of FIR fine structure lines, combined with Spitzer/IRS spectroscopic maps, have been used to constrain the physical conditions in the photo-dissociation regions (PDR) with the Meudon PDR code (Le Petit et al., 2006).
Solving the Puzzles of Terrestrial Planet Formation in the Modern Era of Planet-hunting
The haul of thousands of planets orbiting distant stars discovered by the Kepler and K2 missions has taught us that Earth-size planets are common. The wide diversity of stellar hosts and planetary system architectures provides a treasure trove of new clues that can shed light on how planets form. I employ state-of-the-art N-body models that include collisional fragmentation to numerically explore the late stages of terrestrial planet formation in systems with different stellar masses and giant planet architectures.