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Information about Iras

Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS)
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IRAS and all-sky images

IRAS and all-sky images
General information
Organization:NASA, NIVR, SERC
Launched:25 Jan 1983
Launched from:Vandenberg AFB, California
Mass:1083 kg
Orbit height:900 km
Orbit period:100 minutes
Location:in orbit, deactivated
Type of orbit:polar orbit
Wavelength:infrared
Diameter:0.57 m
Collecting area:~1 m2
Focal length:5.5 m, f/9.6
Instruments
(main survey
instrument):		array of 65 detectors
Low Resolution
Spectrometer (LRS):		8–22 µm slitless spectrometer
Chopped Photometric
Channel (CPC):		low-quality mapping
 
Website:IRAS website
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was the first-ever space-based observatory to perform a survey of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths.

Launched on January 25, 1983, its mission lasted ten months. The telescope was a joint project of the United States (NASA), the Netherlands (NIVR), and the United Kingdom (SERC).

IRAS was the first observatory to perform an all-sky survey at infrared wavelenghts. It mapped 96% of the sky four times, at 12, 25, 60 and 100 micrometre wavelengths, with resolutions ranging from 0.5' at 12 micrometers to 2' at 100 micrometers. It discovered about 350,000 sources, many of which are still awaiting identification. About 75,000 of those are believed to be starburst galaxies, still enduring their star-formation stage. Many other sources are normal stars with disks of dust around them, possibly the early stage of a planetary system formation. New discoveries included a dust disk around Vega and the first images of the Milky Way Galaxy's core.

IRAS's life, like most of infrared satellites that followed after IRAS, was limited by its cooling system: to effectively work in the infrared domain, a satellite must be cooled to impressively low temperatures. In IRAS' case, 475 liters of superfluid helium kept the satellite at a temperature of 1.6 kelvins (about −272 °C), keeping the satellite cool by evaporation. When the fluid totally evaporated after 10 months in orbit, the satellite temperature rose, preventing further observations.

IRAS was designed to catalogue fixed sources, so it scanned the same region of sky several times. Jack Meadows led a team at Leicester University, including John Davies and Simon Green, which searched the rejected sources for moving objects. This led to the discovery of three asteroids, including 3200 Phaethon (an Apollo asteroid and the parent body of the Geminid meteor shower), six comets, and a huge dust trail associated with comet Tempel-2. The comets included the periodic comets 126P/IRAS and 161P/Hartley-IRAS and comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock (C/1983 H1), which made a close approach to the Earth in 1983.

Several space infrared telescopes have continued and greatly expanded the study of the infrared Universe, such as the Infrared Space Observatory launched in 1995, the Spitzer Space Telescope launched in 2003, and the AKARI Space Telescope launched in 2006.

Asteroids discovered: 3
3200 PhaethonOctober 11 1983
3728 IRASAugust 23 1983
(10714) 1983 QGAugust 31 1983

See Also

External links

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA logo
Motto: For the Benefit of All[1]

NASA seal
Agency overview
Formed 29 July 1958

Headquarters Washington D.C.

Annual Budget $16.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programmes (Nederlands Instituut voor Vliegtuigontwikkeling en Ruimtevaart, NIVR) is the official space exploration agency of the Netherlands.

See also, ESA.

External link

  • NIVR

..... Click the link for more information.
The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) used to be the UK agency in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities including astronomy, biotechnology and biological sciences, space research and particle physics.
..... Click the link for more information.
    Diwrnod Santes Dwynwen.
  • Tatiana Day, celebrated as the Day of Russian students since 1755, when the Moscow University was founded.
Note: The date "Jan/25/1994" is "commemorated" as a font-character in the (MS Win98) "HM Phonetic" font (@1994) -- possibly its "birthday".
..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1950s  1960s  1970s  - 1980s -  1990s  2000s  2010s
1980 1981 1982 - 1983 - 1984 1985 1986

Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII
..... Click the link for more information.
In physics, wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a propagating wave of a given frequency. It is commonly designated by the Greek letter lambda (λ). Examples of wave-like phenonomena are light, water waves, and sound waves.
..... Click the link for more information.
Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of visible light, but shorter than that of radio waves. The name means "below red" (from the Latin infra, "below"), red being the color of visible light with the longest wavelength.
..... Click the link for more information.
Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. The term Surface area is the summation of the areas of the exposed sides of an object.

Units

Units for measuring surface area include:
square metre = SI derived unit

..... Click the link for more information.
F and focal length f of a positive (convex) lens, a negative (concave) lens, a concave mirror, and a convex mirror.]] The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly it converges (focuses) or diverges (diffuses) light.
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observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial and/or celestial events. Astrology, astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed.
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survey may refer to:
  • Surveying, the science of measuring positions and distances on Earth
  • Geophysical survey, a sub-surface or surface imaging survey
  • Hydrographic survey, of navigable waters

..... Click the link for more information.
The sky is the part of the atmosphere or of outer space visible from the surface of any astronomical object. It is difficult to define precisely for several reasons.
..... Click the link for more information.
Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of visible light, but shorter than that of radio waves. The name means "below red" (from the Latin infra, "below"), red being the color of visible light with the longest wavelength.
..... Click the link for more information.
In physics, wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a propagating wave of a given frequency. It is commonly designated by the Greek letter lambda (λ). Examples of wave-like phenonomena are light, water waves, and sound waves.
..... Click the link for more information.
    Diwrnod Santes Dwynwen.
  • Tatiana Day, celebrated as the Day of Russian students since 1755, when the Moscow University was founded.
Note: The date "Jan/25/1994" is "commemorated" as a font-character in the (MS Win98) "HM Phonetic" font (@1994) -- possibly its "birthday".
..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1950s  1960s  1970s  - 1980s -  1990s  2000s  2010s
1980 1981 1982 - 1983 - 1984 1985 1986

Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
..... Click the link for more information.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA logo
Motto: For the Benefit of All[1]

NASA seal
Agency overview
Formed 29 July 1958

Headquarters Washington D.C.

Annual Budget $16.
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"Je maintiendrai"   (French)
"Ik zal handhaven"   (Dutch)
"I shall stand fast"1
Anthem
..... Click the link for more information.
The Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programmes (Nederlands Instituut voor Vliegtuigontwikkeling en Ruimtevaart, NIVR) is the official space exploration agency of the Netherlands.

See also, ESA.

External link

  • NIVR

..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"Dieu et mon droit" [2]   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen" [3]
..... Click the link for more information.
The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) used to be the UK agency in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities including astronomy, biotechnology and biological sciences, space research and particle physics.
..... Click the link for more information.
A starburst galaxy is a galaxy in the process of an exceptionally high rate of star formation, compared to the usual star formation rate seen in most galaxies. Galaxies are often observed to have a burst of star formation after a collision or close encounter between two galaxies.
..... Click the link for more information.
STAR is an acronym for:

Organizations:
  • Society for Telescopy, Astronomy, and Radio, a non-profit astronomy club in New Jersey
  • Special Tasks and Rescue or Special Tactics and Response, synonyms for SWAT

..... Click the link for more information.
planetary system consists of the various non-stellar objects orbiting a star such as planets, moons, asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and cosmic dust.[1][2] The Sun together with its planetary system, which includes Earth, is known as the Solar System.
..... Click the link for more information.
Vega (α Lyr / α Lyrae / Alpha Lyrae) is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the fifth brightest star in the sky and the second brightest star in the Northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus.
..... Click the link for more information.
Milky Way (a translation of the Latin Via Lactea, in turn derived from the Greek Γαλαξίας (Galaxias) sometimes referred to simply as "the Galaxy"), is a barred spiral galaxy that lies with the Local Group of galaxies
..... Click the link for more information.
Superfluidity is a phase of matter or description of heat capacity in which "unusual" effects are observed when liquids, typically of helium-4 or helium-3, overcome friction by surface interaction when at a stage, known as the "lambda point" for helium-4, at which the liquid's
..... Click the link for more information.
Helium (He) is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert monatomic chemical element that heads the noble gas series in the periodic table and whose atomic number is 2.
..... Click the link for more information.
The kelvin (symbol: K) is a unit increment of temperature and is one of the seven SI base units. The Kelvin scale is a thermodynamic (absolute) temperature scale where absolute zero — the coldest possible temperature — is zero kelvins
..... Click the link for more information.


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