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Rapid Eye Mount Telescope
The Rapid Eye Mount telescope (REM) is a fully automatic, 60 cm aperture telescope located at ESO's La Silla Observatory at 2,400 metres altitude on the edge of the Atacama Desert in Chile. The telescope's aim is to catch the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). REM is triggered by a signal from a high-energy satellite such as Swift and rapidly points to the detected location in the sky. It is operated for the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics since 2002. Telescope The telescope has been designed to be a fast pointing instrument, and its relatively small size is in fact balanced by a 10°/s accurate fast pointing. This velocity makes REM suitable for immediate response to random alerts. The telescope hosts two instruments: REMIR, an infrared imaging camera, and ROSS, a visible imager and slitless spectrograph. The two cameras can observe simultaneously thanks to a dichroic placed before telescope focus the same field of view of 10×10 arc minutes. In the infrar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe distant objects, the word ''telescope'' now refers to a wide range of instruments capable of detecting different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and in some cases other types of detectors. The first known practical telescopes were refracting telescopes with glass lenses and were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century. They were used for both terrestrial applications and astronomy. The reflecting telescope, which uses mirrors to collect and focus light, was invented within a few decades of the first refracting telescope. In the 20th century, many new types of telescopes were invented, including radio telescopes in the 1930s and infrared telescopes in the 1960s. Etymology The word ''telescope'' was coin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dichroic
In optics, a dichroic material is either one which causes visible light to be split up into distinct beams of different wavelengths (colours) (not to be confused with dispersion), or one in which light rays having different polarizations are absorbed by different amounts. In beam splitters The original meaning of ''dichroic'', from the Greek ''dikhroos'', two-coloured, refers to any optical device which can split a beam of light into two beams with differing wavelengths. Such devices include mirrors and filters, usually treated with optical coatings, which are designed to reflect light over a certain range of wavelengths and transmit light which is outside that range. An example is the dichroic prism, used in some camcorders, which uses several coatings to split light into red, green and blue components for recording on separate CCD arrays, however it is now more common to have a Bayer filter to filter individual pixels on a single CCD array. This kind of dichroic device does n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TAROT-South Robotic Observatory
TAROT (french: Télescope à Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires, links=no, "Quick-action telescope for transient objects") is a project of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) aimed at rapidly reacting to particular data from other astronomical surveying facilities to monitor for and registering fast changing astronomical objects and phenomena. The target of this particular project is so-called gamma-ray bursts (GRB). The TAROT-South facility is a 25 cm very fast moving optical robotic telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Able to accelerate at to a top speed of , it can begin observing within 1–1.5 seconds of being notified by a gamma-ray telescope that a gamma-ray burst is in progress and can provide fast and accurate positions of transient events within seconds. In addition to its own observations, an important purpose of the telescope is to find an accurate source location. With its wide field of view, it can take an approximate location (±1°) from a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Active Galactic Nucleus
An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not produced by stars. Such excess non-stellar emission has been observed in the radio, microwave, infrared, optical, ultra-violet, X-ray and gamma ray wavebands. A galaxy hosting an AGN is called an "active galaxy". The non-stellar radiation from an AGN is theorized to result from the accretion of matter by a supermassive black hole at the center of its host galaxy. Active galactic nuclei are the most luminous persistent sources of electromagnetic radiation in the universe, and as such can be used as a means of discovering distant objects; their evolution as a function of cosmic time also puts constraints on models of the cosmos. The observed characteristics of an AGN depend on several properties such as the mass of the central black hole, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GRB080319B
__NOTOC__ GRB 080319B was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected by the Swift satellite at 06:12 UTC on March 19, 2008. The burst set a new record for the farthest object that was observable with the naked eye: it had a peak visual apparent magnitude of 5.7 and remained visible to human eyes for approximately 30 seconds. The magnitude was brighter than 9.0 for approximately 60 seconds. If viewed from 1 AU away, it would have had a peak apparent magnitude of −67.57 (21 quadrillion times brighter than the Sun seen from Earth). Overview The GRB's redshift was measured to be 0.937, which means that the explosion occurred about 7.5 billion () years ago (the lookback time), and it took the light that long to reach Earth. This is roughly half the time since the Big Bang. The first scientific paper submitted on the event suggested that the GRB could have easily been seen to a redshift of 16 (essentially to the time in the universe when stars were just being formed, well into the age of r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
INAF
The National Institute for Astrophysics ( it, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, or INAF) is an Italian research institute in astronomy and astrophysics, founded in 1999. INAF funds and operates twenty separate research facilities, which in turn employ scientists, engineers and technical staff. The research they perform covers most areas of astronomy, ranging from planetary science to cosmology. Research facilities INAF coordinates the activities of twenty research units, nineteen in Italy and one in Spain: *Bologna Observatory *Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica cosmica di Bologna *Istituto di Radioastronomia di Bologna *Cagliari Observatory *Catania Observatory *Arcetri Observatory (Florence) *Brera Observatory (Milan) *Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica cosmica di Milano *Capodimonte Observatory (Naples) *Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova *Palermo Observatory *Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica cosmica di Palermo *Rome Observatory *Istituto di Astrofisic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Instituto Nazionale Di Astrofisica
The National Institute for Astrophysics ( it, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, or INAF) is an Italian research institute in astronomy and astrophysics, founded in 1999. INAF funds and operates twenty separate research facilities, which in turn employ scientists, engineers and technical staff. The research they perform covers most areas of astronomy, ranging from planetary science to cosmology. Research facilities INAF coordinates the activities of twenty research units, nineteen in Italy and one in Spain: *Bologna Observatory *Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica cosmica di Bologna *Istituto di Radioastronomia di Bologna *Cagliari Observatory *Catania Observatory *Arcetri Observatory (Florence) *Brera Observatory (Milan) *Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica cosmica di Milano *Capodimonte Observatory (Naples) *Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova *Palermo Observatory *Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica cosmica di Palermo *Rome Observatory *Istituto di Astrofisic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photometry (astronomy)
Photometry, from Greek '' photo-'' ("light") and '' -metry'' ("measure"), is a technique used in astronomy that is concerned with measuring the flux or intensity of light radiated by astronomical objects. This light is measured through a telescope using a photometer, often made using electronic devices such as a CCD photometer or a photoelectric photometer that converts light into an electric current by the photoelectric effect. When calibrated against standard stars (or other light sources) of known intensity and colour, photometers can measure the brightness or apparent magnitude of celestial objects. The methods used to perform photometry depend on the wavelength region under study. At its most basic, photometry is conducted by gathering light and passing it through specialized photometric optical bandpass filters, and then capturing and recording the light energy with a photosensitive instrument. Standard sets of passbands (called a photometric system) are defined to allow a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amici Prism
An Amici prism, named for the astronomer Giovanni Battista Amici, is a type of compound dispersive prism used in spectrometers. The Amici prism consists of two triangular prisms in contact, with the first typically being made from a medium-dispersion crown glass, and the second a higher-dispersion flint glass. Light entering the first prism is refracted at the first air-glass interface, refracted again at the interface between the two prisms, and then exits the second prism at near-normal incidence. The prism angles and materials are chosen such that one wavelength (colour) of light, the ''centre wavelength'', exits the prism parallel to (but offset from) the entrance beam. The prism assembly is thus a ''direct-vision prism'', and is commonly used as such in hand-held spectroscopes. Other wavelengths are deflected at angles depending on the glass dispersion of the materials. Looking at a light source through the prism thus shows the optical spectrum of the source. By 1860, Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slitless Spectrograph
Slitless spectroscopy is astronomical spectroscopy done without a small slit to allow only light from a small region to be diffracted. It works best in sparsely populated fields, as it spreads each point source out into its spectrum, and crowded fields will be too confused to be useful. It also faces the problem that for extended sources, nearby emission lines will overlap. The Crossley telescope utilized a slitless spectrograph that was originally employed by Nicholas Mayall. The Henry Draper Catalogue, published 1924, contains stellar classifications for hundreds of thousands of stars, based on spectra taken with the objective prism method at Harvard College Observatory. The work of classification was led initially by Williamina Fleming and later by Annie Jump Cannon, with contributions from many other female astronomers including Florence Cushman. See also *Fine Guidance Sensor and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (JWST component) * Echelle grating An echelle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Southern Observatory
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 member states for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €162 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile. ESO has built and operated some of the largest and most technologically advanced telescopes. These include the 3.6 m New Technology Telescope, an early pioneer in the use of active optics, and the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which consists of four individual 8.2 m telescopes and four smaller auxiliary telescopes which can all work together or separately. The Atacama Large Millimeter Array observes the un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infrared Imaging
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around 1 millimeter (300 GHz) to the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum, around 700 nanometers (430 THz). Longer IR wavelengths (30 μm-100 μm) are sometimes included as part of the terahertz radiation range. Almost all black-body radiation from objects near room temperature is at infrared wavelengths. As a form of electromagnetic radiation, IR propagates energy and momentum, exerts radiation pressure, and has properties corresponding to both those of a wave and of a particle, the photon. It was long known that fires emit invisible heat; in 1681 the pioneering experimenter Edme Mariotte showed that glass, though transparent to sunlight, obstructed radiant heat. In 1800 the astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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