R & D

SPICA / SAFARI

SPICA is a next-generation infrared astronomy mission, lead by JAXA (Japan) with important contributions foreseen from ESA and a European consortium. With its deeply cooled (< 6 K) large (3-m class) telescope, SPICA will be able to achieve superior sensitivity and high spatial resolution.

SAFARI (SpicA FAR-infrared Instrument) is one of the three instruments planned for the SPICA payload. SAFARI is the FIR imaging spectrometer (30 - 210 μm, spectral resolution of 10 to 10000), next to two mid-infrared instruments, namely the MIR coronograph (3.5/5 - 27 μm)  and the MIR camera/spectrometer (5 - 38 μm).

Information/documentation with regard to the development and building of SAFARI can be found in the "SAFARI Instrument" menu item on the left. 

More info

• SPICA @JAXA
• SPICA @ESA (Cosmic Vision 2015-2025)

LEA people

Workshop on Millimetron Science and Instrumentation

15-16 January 2009
SRON Utrecht, The Netherlands

[ The workshop was finally moved to SRON Utrecht due to a parallel event in Groningen ]

For registration, please, send e-mail to Andrey Baryshev (A.M.Baryshev at sron.nl) for instrumentation part and Marco Spaans (spaans at astro.rug.nl) for astrophysics part with indication of topic of interest.

Goal of workshop: Present the status of Millimetron mission; discuss  astrophysical potential and science cases; discuss and review the Millimetron instrumentation and propose preliminary science requirements.

Preliminary Agenda of the workshop can be found here. We suggest, that the first day will be mostly devoted to mission status and astrophysics and the second day will be devoted to discussion on instrumentation. Short mission description, preliminary summary of instrumentation content and sensitivities can be found here.

Travel information can be found here

Accommodation: Workshop has been moved to Utrecht. There is also big event in Utrecht. The best hotel: Mercure Hotel in Bunnik near Utrecht. Follow this link for booking. Please consult the organizers if you find problem to reserve.

Science drivers

Millimetron is capable of peering deep into dusty regions and can probe the birth places of stars and planets, as well as the epochs of galaxy formation. The use of state-of-the-art submm cameras with high-to-medium resolution imaging spectrometers, will allow a complete picture of the energy balance and dynamical processes in young astrophysical systems. Therefore, Millimetron will be a major step forward after Herschel, ESA’s cornerstone mission to be launched in 2009.

The wavelength range 50-600 um is ideally suited to study warm gas (T>100 K) and dust (T>10 K) for a range of astrophysical objects, e.g.:
acive galaxies like Seyferts and ULIRGs, irradiated gas clouds in the Milky Way and (local) starburst galaxies, AGN exposed to feedback effects from accreting black and shock waves, high redshift systems, and Galactic (high-mass) star-forming regions including proto-planetary disks.

For example, Millimetron can detect warm dust (30-50 K), fine-structure lines ([OI], [CII], [NII], [CI] etc.), and water lines. Millimetron also covers CO lines from J=5-4 to J=41-40, in the rest frame. So high redshift galaxies can be probed since high J CO lines have frequencies that are shifted into the Millimetron window for redshifts of z=0-6. The same holds for the important [CII] 158 um cooling line that can be observed for z~0-4, an epoch when the bulk of the stars in the universe is formed.

Millimetron''s wavelength range can compliment and overlap with ALMA band 9 and 10, allowing for strong synergy, also in terms of space-VLBI. Furthermore, Millimetron can image the (redshifted) dust continuum emission from evolving galaxies and can obtain spectroscopic redshifts for many sources, allowing the origins of galaxies to be probed.

Specific topics that can be addressed by Millimetron are, among others:
The energetics and kinematics of power sources inside obscured galaxies; stars versus AGN, feedback effects. Star formation-dense molecular gas scaling laws for local quiescent and active galaxies. The growth of black holes with redshift and the Magorrian relationship. Physical properties of the multi-phase ISM in galaxies; turbulence, UV dominated and X-ray dominated regions, shocks and outflows, ionization balance, chemistry and magnetic fields. Resolving the far-infrared background at 100 micron. Differences between low- and high-mass star formation; the impact of environment (e.g., the Milky Way center and Orion), initial conditions, fragmentation and the origin of the IMF. Young stellar object evolution and proto-planetary disk physics.

Previous projects

Please see the sub-menu (ISO, IRAS) for further info.