Infra-Red Astronomy

• see also:
  • astronomy index and links
  • electromagnetic radiation
  • infra-red photography
  • ipac (infrared processing and analysis centre)

Introduction:

• as much of the cosmic infra-red radiation is absorbed by the water vapour in earth's atmosphere, infra-red astronomers are limited to viewing from tops of mountains, aircraft and now space telescopes.

Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS):

• completed in 2001, taking 3.5yrs using a pair of ground-based telescopes, it mapped the whole sky in infra-red
• it's data was released online in March 2003

NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF):

• launched into space in April 2003, it is poised to do for infrared astronomy what the Chandra X-ray Observatory did for X-ray astronomy - open up new vistas more deeply than ever before.

Gemini near Infrared earth-based telescope:

• uses Adaptive Optics which samples light from a nearby star sampled at 1000Hz to alter the optics of the main mirror so that the aberrations caused by earth's atmosphere (seeing) are corrected 
• see http://www.gemini.edu/jupiter06