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Infrared Astronomy

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Optical, Infrared and Radio Astronomy

Part of the book series: UNITEXT for Physics ((UNITEXTPH))

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Abstract

Infrared astronomy investigates the region of the electromagnetic spectrum from 1 to about 300 micron and probes the emission of cold objects and of regions, like the center of our galaxy, that are not observable by optical instruments since they are inside dust. This chapter presents the telescopes and the detectors used in the different regions of the infrared, together with the observational techniques needed to deal with the large background.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.stsci.edu/hst/nicmos/.

  2. 2.

    https://herschel.jpl.nasa.gov/pacsInstrument.shtml.

  3. 3.

    http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/nirspec/.

  4. 4.

    http://www.ukirt.hawaii.edu/.

  5. 5.

    http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/2mass.html.

  6. 6.

    https://www.sofia.usra.edu/.

  7. 7.

    http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/IRASdocs/iras.html.

  8. 8.

    http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/.

  9. 9.

    http://www.herschel.caltech.edu/.

References

  1. Glass, I. S., Handbook of Infrared Astronomy, Cambridge University Press (1999)

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  2. Lèna, P. et al.: Observational Astrophysics. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg (2012)

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  3. MCLean. I. S.: Electronic Imaging in Astronomy: Detectors and Instrumentation, Springer (2008)

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  4. Oswalt, T. D., McLean, I. S.: Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems. Volume I: Telescopes and Instrumentation. Springer (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Oswalt, T. D., Bond, H. E.: Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems. Volume II: Astronomical Techniques, Software, and Data. Springer (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Zombeck, M. V.: Handbook of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (2007)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Rosa Poggiani

Authors
  1. Rosa Poggiani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rosa Poggiani .

Problems

Problems

8.1

Discuss the different types of infrared detectors.

8.2

Discuss the operation of bolometer detectors.

8.3

Discuss the differences between the infrared arrays and the CCDs.

8.4

Estimate the resolution power of the Hubble Space Telescope that has a primary mirror with a diameter of 2.4 m and is operating at the diffraction limit, at the near-infrared wavelength of 2.2 microns.

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Poggiani, R. (2017). Infrared Astronomy. In: Optical, Infrared and Radio Astronomy. UNITEXT for Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44732-2_8

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