The Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on the Spitzer Space Telescope
J. R. Houck
(1)
,
T. L. Roellig
(2)
,
Jeffrey E. van Cleve
(3)
,
William J. Forrest
(4)
,
T. Herter
(1)
,
Charles R. Lawrence
(5)
,
K. Matthews
(6)
,
H. J. Reitsema
(3)
,
B. T. Soifer
(7)
,
D. M. Watson
(4)
,
Dan W. Weedman
(1)
,
Marty Huisjen
(3)
,
J. Troeltzsch
(3)
,
D. J. Barry
(1)
,
J. Bernard-Salas
(1)
,
C. E. Blacken
(1)
,
B. R. Brandl
(8)
,
Vassilis Charmandaris
(1, 9)
,
Daniel Devost
(1)
,
G. E. Gull
(1)
,
P. Hall
(1)
,
C. P. Henderson
(1)
,
Sarah J. U. Higdon
(1)
,
B. E. Pirger
(1)
,
J. Schoenwald
(1)
,
G. C. Sloan
(1)
,
K. I. Uchida
(1)
,
Philip N. Appleton
(7)
,
Lee Armus
(7)
,
M. J. Burgdorf
(7)
,
Sergio Fajardo-Acosta
(7)
,
C. J. Grillmair
(7)
,
James G. Ingalls
(7)
,
Patrick W. Morris
(7)
,
Harry I. Teplitz
(7)
1
Department of Astronomy, Cornell University
2 SETI Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field
3 Ball Aerospace, Boulder
4 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
5 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
6 Palomar Observatory, California Institute of Technology
7 SSC - Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology
8 Leiden University
9 LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique
2 SETI Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field
3 Ball Aerospace, Boulder
4 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
5 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
6 Palomar Observatory, California Institute of Technology
7 SSC - Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology
8 Leiden University
9 LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique
Résumé
The Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) is one of three science instruments on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The IRS comprises four separate spectrograph modules covering the wavelength range from 5.3 to 38 mum with spectral resolutions, R=lambda/Deltalambda~90 and 600, and it was optimized to take full advantage of the very low background in the space environment. The IRS is performing at or better than the prelaunch predictions. An autonomous target acquisition capability enables the IRS to locate the mid-infrared centroid of a source, providing the information so that the spacecraft can accurately offset that centroid to a selected slit. This feature is particularly useful when taking spectra of sources with poorly known coordinates. An automated data-reduction pipeline has been developed at the Spitzer Science Center.