Astrophysics

Jonas Zmuidzinas

HST 25th anniversary – April 24, 2015

Hubble Ultra-Deep Field 2014

Cosmic Timeline

HST galaxies

Keck I & II10m telecopesMauna Kea, HI

Cosmic Timeline

CMB - CosmicMicrowaveBackground

Planck map of CMB - December 2014

Planck spacecraft, awaiting launch in Kourou, 2009 Planck HFI focal plane – JPL/MDL

CMB polarization – signature of inflation?March 2014 BICEP 2 detectors

JPL/MDL

December 2014: Planck + BICEP2 - dust !

Spider balloon payload – 6x BICEP2

Jan. 17, 2015

Feb. 6, 20156 telescopes: 3 x 100 GHz + 3 x 150 GHz

HST + Planck: What reionized the universe, and when did this happen ?

World’s largest ground-based astronomy projectALMA = Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter ArrayAtacama plateau, ChileEnabled by superconducting detectors

Nature, 2015z = 7.5

Largest space telescope:Herschel Space Observatory

15

Herschel 2010: The universe is full of dusty galaxies…

May 6, 2009

HSO/HIFI finds water plumes from Ceres

Kuppers et al 2014, Nature 505NASA/JPL’s Dawn spacecraft arriving at Ceres (March 2015)

557 GHz

rH ~ 2.7 AU (vs Mars ~ 1.5 AU)

Bright spots ?

ALMA Image of Planet Formation in HL TauC. Brogan et al., 2015

35 mas resolution

Kepler: time domain astronomy100 Mpixels

Large Synoptic Survey Telescope3 Gpixels

8 m telescopeFOV - 10 sq. degrees

LSST preview: Pan-STARRS

1.4 Gpixel cameraMarch 2015

1.8 m telescope

• NASA Explorer mission to observe transients• objects in the universe

– Launched November 20, 2004

• BAT wide-field gamma-ray instrument• detects new transient sources

• On-board software finds new source, does• constraint check and slews spacecraft for• X-ray and UV optical observations

• Discoveries:• - Origin of gamma-ray busts• - Supernova shock break-out• - Tidal disruption of star by black hole

Swift – Autonomous time-domain astronomy

BAT

XRTUVOT

Neil GehrelsNASA/GSFCSWIFT P.I.

Nature, August 2012

VLA image of radio jets produced by accretion onto a SMBH

Disruption of star by SMBH

X-ray telescopes

XMM - Newton Chandra

NuSTAR: hard X-ray telescopeFiona Harrison, Caltech: NuSTAR P.I.

NuSTAR launch: June 13, 2012

February 2013

ESA L2: AthenaNovember 2013

Enabling technology: superconducting microcalorimeter detectors

NASA Astrophysics 30-year Roadmap (2013)

Preparing for the 2020 U.S. Decadal Survey• NASA will support studies of 3-4 missions in the $1-2B range • The initial short list of candidates (Paul Hertz, January 2015 AAS):

– FAR IR Surveyor–The Astrophysics Visionary Roadmap identifies a Far IR Surveyor as contributing through improvements in sensitivity, spectroscopy, and angular resolution.

– Habitable-Exoplanet Imaging Mission–The 2010 Decadal Survey recommends that a habitable-exoplanet imaging mission be studied in time for consideration by the 2020 decadal survey.

– UV/Optical/IR Surveyor–The Astrophysics Visionary Roadmap identifies a UV/Optical/IR Surveyor as contributing through improvements in sensitivity, spectroscopy, high contrast imaging, astrometry, angular resolution and/or wavelength coverage. The 2010 Decadal Survey recommends that NASA prepare for a UV mission to be considered by the 2020 Decadal Survey.

– X-ray Surveyor – The Astrophysics Visionary Roadmap identifies an X-ray Surveyor as contributing through improvements in sensitivity, spectroscopy, and angular resolution.• N.B. – ESA’s Athena