Rinehart Stephen A, Benford Dominic J, Cataldo Giuseppe, Dwek Eliahu, Henry Ross, Kinzer Raymond E, Nuth Joseph, Silverberg Robert, Wheeler Caleb, Wollack Edward
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 665, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.
Appl Opt. 2011 Jul 20;50(21):4115-23. doi: 10.1364/AO.50.004115.
Dust is found throughout the universe and plays an important role for a wide range of astrophysical phenomena. In recent years, new IR facilities have provided powerful new data for understanding these phenomena. However, interpretation of these data is often complicated by a lack of complementary information about the optical properties of astronomically relevant materials. The Optical Properties of Astronomical Silicates with Infrared Techniques (OPASI-T) program at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is designed to provide new high-quality laboratory data from which we can derive the optical properties of astrophysical dust analogues. This program makes use of multiple instruments, including new equipment designed and built specifically for this purpose. The suite of instruments allows us to derive optical properties over a wide wavelength range, from the near-IR through the millimeter, also providing the capability for exploring how these properties depend upon the temperature of the sample. In this paper, we discuss the overall structure of the research program, describe the new instruments that have been developed to meet the science goals, and demonstrate the efficacy of these tools.
宇宙中普遍存在尘埃，它在众多天体物理现象中发挥着重要作用。近年来，新的红外设备为理解这些现象提供了强大的新数据。然而，由于缺乏与天文相关材料光学特性的补充信息，这些数据的解读往往变得复杂。美国国家航空航天局戈达德太空飞行中心的“利用红外技术研究天文硅酸盐的光学特性”（OPASI-T）项目旨在提供新的高质量实验室数据，以便我们从中推导天体物理尘埃类似物的光学特性。该项目使用了多种仪器，包括专门为此设计和制造的新设备。这套仪器使我们能够在从近红外到毫米的宽波长范围内推导光学特性，还具备探索这些特性如何依赖于样品温度的能力。在本文中，我们讨论了研究项目的整体结构，描述了为实现科学目标而开发的新仪器，并展示了这些工具的有效性。
