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News & Public Affairs
University of Florida

Contact Information:

Writer:
Aaron Hoover, (352) 392-0186, ahoover{at}ufl.edu

Sources:
C. Telesco, (352) 392-2052, Ext. 265, telesco{at}astro.ufl.edu
R. Elston, (352) 219-4791, elston{at}astro.ufl.edu

May 5, 2003

TWO NEW UF INSTRUMENTS TO AID QUEST FOR COSMIC ORIGINS

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Astronomers probing the most distant and ancient 
regions of the universe and the origins of galaxies, stars and
planets will soon have two powerful new tools.

After spending nearly five years building it, a team of University of 
Florida scientists this month installed the world's most advanced 
mid-infrared camera on the Gemini Telescope in Chile, one of the
largest telescopes in the world.

Meanwhile, the Gemini Observatory, the international consortium that 
oversees two telescopes in Chile and Hawaii, has announced it will 
provide UF researchers $3.1 million to design and build a bigger, 
more-powerful version of a UF-developed infrared spectrometer that
has been in use for nearly three years. The new tool will
significantly increase the number of distant stars or galaxies that
astronomers can investigate each night, leading to new information on
the origins of galaxies, planets and other celestial bodies.

"Without these instruments, these telescopes are basically light 
collectors -- they collect the light and bring it to focus," said 
Richard Elston, a UF professor of astronomy and a leader of UF's
growing astronomical instrumentation program. "You have to build
these instruments to do the scientific analysis, and that's what
we're doing here."

Astronomers interested in how galaxies or celestial bodies form 
typically can't rely on visible light, because the objects they study 
are too far away, don't emit much visible light, or are concealed by 
clouds of gas or particles.

As a result, astronomers often look for answers in lower frequency 
infrared light, which is emitted by all objects that generate heat. 
Using telescopes and instruments modified to receive this infrared 
light, astronomers can "see" many galaxies or celestial bodies that
are otherwise invisible, because infrared light penetrates dust
clouds and travels huge distances. By analyzing the different spectra
of this light, astronomers can draw conclusions about these objects'
sizes, distances from the Earth, chemical compositions, temperatures
and so on. 

The new UF-built instruments are designed to enhance such infrared 
observations. They will be used first at Gemini South, which is on 
Chile's Cerro Pachon mountain and is the twin of Gemini North on 
Hawaii's Mauna Kea. These telescopes, which have mirrors that are
about 27-foot in diameter, are among the largest in the world.

Charlie Telesco, a UF professor of astronomy, led the development of
the instrument -- called the Thermal Region Camera and Spectrograph,
or T-ReCS -- just installed on Gemini South. He said T-ReCS is
expected to prove particularly useful for investigating celestial
objects that have temperatures less than 200 degrees Fahrenheit, very
cool by celestial standards. These include, for example, the giant,
swirling discs of dust that surround stars as they form and are
thought to coagulate into planets. "By imaging the dust in discs
around distant stars, we can understand how planets form," Telesco
said. 

Telesco added that T-ReCS also will help astronomers investigate more 
distant, much more faint stars. Many of these stars, and other
distant objects, are so far away their light takes millions or even
billions of years to reach Earth. As a result, astronomers can, in
effect, use them as time travel machines to learn not only about
their origins but also the genesis of the universe.

Elston conceived and developed the Florida Multi-object Imaging Grism
Spectrometer -- FLAMINGOS for short -- designed for telescopes
smaller than the Gemini's, such as the 13-foot mirror telescope at
the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory near Gemini's Cerro
Pachon.

At the heart of the spectrometer is a thin metal plate with tiny
holes precisely calibrated to line up with the distant galaxies or
stars astronomers are studying. The plate blocks out all light except
what comes from these targets. As a result, astronomers can observe
and gather data from many galaxies, stars or other celestial objects
at once, whereas without the instrument they could focus only on one
object at a time. Instead of looking at 10 objects a night, FLAMINGOS
enables astronomers to examine hundreds. That's important because
astronomers need a big sample size. "If you want to know what the sun
looked like when it formed, you can't go find the sun in its earliest
form -- you have to look at a whole bunch of objects and find the
ones that you think are like the sun," Elston said.

The spectrometer already has led to important new discoveries.
Although astronomers continue to crunch the data, findings from the
past year include six stars at critical stages in the process of
forming planets, doubling the number that had been found previously.

The results have been so encouraging that the Gemini Observatory
asked Elston and his colleague on the project, UF astronomy Professor
Steve Eikenberry, to double the size of the spectrometer so it can be
used effectively on the Gemini telescope. Expected to weigh 2 tons
and measure 8 feet long, the new spectrometer, FLAMINGOS 2, will
allow astronomers using Gemini to gather data from as many as five
times the number of objects as FLAMINGOS -- or 30 times more objects
than possible using any other spectrometer in the world.

The impact of both the new mid-infrared camera and the new
spectrometer will extend beyond discrete discoveries. The Gemini and
other major telescopes are extremely expensive to operate. Elston
said. By allowing astronomers to gather more data from each night of
observation, the instruments open the door to more ambitious
investigations, he said. "Now, you can go out and do things that
would have been impossible before," Elston said.

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