FIFI-LS: The Field-Imaging Far-Infrared Line Spectrometer on SOFIA

Fischer, Christian; Beckmann, Simon; Bryant, Aaron; Colditz, Sebastian; Fumi, Fabio; Geis, N.; Hamidouche, Mourad; Henning, Thomas; Hönle, Rainer; Iserlohe, C.; Klein, Randolf; Krabbe, A.; Looney, Leslie W.; Poglitsch, A.; Raab, Walfried; Rebell, Felix; Rosenthal, Dirk; Savage, Maureen L.; Schweitzer, Mario; Trinh, Christopher; Vacca, William D.

doi:10.1142/s2251171718400032

Cited by 65 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…We observed NGC 4258 with the Field-Imaging Far-Infrared Line Spectrometer (FIFI-LS) on the SOFIA 2.5-m telescope on 04 Mar 2016 (obsID = 04 0017 1; Flight 285; Cycle 4), and again on 28 Feb 2017 (obsID = 05 0014 2,3; Flight 379; Cycle 5). FIFI-LS is an infrared integral field spectrometer with two channels capable of covering a wavelength range from 50-125 µm, blue channel, and 105-200 µm, red channel (Looney et al 2000, Fischer et al 2018, Colditz et al 2018). FIFI-LS has an array of 5 × 5 spatial pixels (spaxels) covering a field of view of 30 × 30 arcsec 2 in the blue (6 × 6 arcsec 2 spaxels) and 60 × 60 arcsec 2 (12 × 12 arcsec 2 spaxels) in the red.…”

Section: Sofia Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jet-related Excitation of the [C ii] Emission in the Active Galaxy NGC 4258 with SOFIA

Appleton

Díaz-Santos

Fadda

et al. 2018

ApJ

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We detect widespread [C II] 157.7 µm emission from the inner 5 kpc of the active galaxy NGC 4258 with the SOFIA integral field spectrometer FIFI-LS. The emission is found associated with warm H 2 , distributed along and beyond the end of southern jet, in a zone known to contain shock-excited optical filaments. It is also associated with soft X-ray hot-spots, which are the counterparts of the "anomalous radio arms" of NGC 4258, and a 1 kpc-long filament on the minor axis of the galaxy which contains young star clusters. Palomar-CWI Hα integral field spectroscopy shows that the filament exhibits non-circular motions within NGC 4258. Many of the [C II] profiles are very broad, with the highest line width, 455 km s −1 , observed at the position of the southern jet bow-shock. Abnormally high ratios of L([C II])/L(FIR) and L([C II])/L(PAH7.7 µm) are found along and beyond the southern jet and in the X-ray hotspots. These are the same regions that exhibit unusually large intrinsic [C II] line widths. This suggests that the [C II] traces warm molecular gas in shocks and turbulence associated with the jet. We estimate that as much as 40% (3.8 × 10 39 erg s −1 ) of the total [C II] luminosity from the inner 5 kpc of NGC 4258 arises in shocks and turbulence (< 1% bolometric luminosity from the active nucleus), the rest being consistent with [C II] excitation associated with star formation. We propose that the highly-inclined jet is colliding with, and being deflected around, dense irregularities in a thick disk, leading to significant energy dissipation over a wide area of the galaxy.

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Section: Sofia Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jet-related Excitation of the [C ii] Emission in the Active Galaxy NGC 4258 with SOFIA

Appleton

Díaz-Santos

Fadda

et al. 2018

ApJ

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“…The call for proposals includes what instruments will be available in that cycle. Instruments o®ered in cycle 7 which begins in 2019 are: Echelon-Cross-Echelle Spectrograph (EXES), a mid-infrared high-resolution spectrograph (Richter et al, 2010(Richter et al, , 2018; Far Infrared Field-Imaging Line Spectrometer (FIFI-LS), an integral-¯eld far-infrared spectrometer (Klein et al, 2014;Fischer et al, 2018;Colditz et al, 2018); Faint Object InfraRed Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST), a mid-infrared camera and grism spectrometer (Herter et al, 2012(Herter et al, , 2018; Focal Plane Imager (FPIþÞ a visible light focal plane imager (Pfüller et al, 2016(Pfüller et al, , 2018; German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (GREAT), a heterodyne spectrometer including the seven-beam receiver array upGREAT and 4GREAT (Heyminck et al, 2012;Risacher et al, 2016aRisacher et al, ,b, 2018; High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera þ Polarimeter (HAWCþÞ, a far-IR camera and polarimeter (Harper et al, 2018). More details on SOFIA's science instrument suite are in this volume (Ennico et al, 2018).…”

Section: Scheduling Observations With Sofiamentioning

confidence: 99%

SOFIA Flight Planning and Execution

Leppik

Bower

Kaminski

et al. 2018

J. Astron. Instrum.

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The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is NASA’s airborne observatory. Observing with SOFIA has different challenges than observing from a ground based, or even space-based observatory. Although pointing SOFIA is similar to pointing an alt/az telescope, positioning the telescope requires not only the telescope assembly but also the aircraft. SOFIA’s telescope assembly can move in altitude nominally between 20∘ and 60∘. Since the telescope is pointed out the left side of a modified Boeing 747, the azimuth is determined by the aircraft heading. As a result, observing plans become the basis for a flight plan, and the science observation and aircraft operations are intrinsically linked. This paper will discuss flight planning and execution on this unique observatory.

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“…In this Letter, we describe observations of Sgr B1 produced in lines of O ++ (which has an intermediate IP of 35 eV), made with the Field Imaging Far-Infrared Line Spectrometer (FIFI-LS; Colditz et al 2018;Fischer et al 2018) on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA; Young et al 2012;Temi et al 2014). Section 2 describes the observations, Section 3 depicts the computed electron densities (N e ), and the ratios of the ions O ++ /S ++ and Ne ++ /O ++ , where the [Ne III] and [S III] line intensities were taken from S18.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SOFIA FIFI-LS Observations of Sgr B1: Ionization Structure and Sources of Excitation

Simpson

Colgan

Cotera

et al. 2018

ApJL

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The current paradigm of Galactic Center (GC) gas motions and star formation envisions sequential star formation in streams of gas as they pass near the supermassive black hole, Sgr A*. This is based on the relative positions of dense molecular clouds, the very young star-forming region Sgr B2, the much older region Sgr C, and the several Myr old Arches and Quintuplet Clusters. Because Sgr B1 is found with Sgr B2 in a common envelope of molecular gas and far-infrared emission, the two sources are thought to be physically related, even though there are indicators of a significantly greater age for Sgr B1. To clarify the status of Sgr B1, we have mapped it with the FIFI-LS spectrometer on SOFIA in the far-infrared lines of [O III] 52 and 88 µm. From the ratios of these lines and lines measured with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph, we find that there are at least eight separate sub-regions that must contain the stars that excite the gas. We infer spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the ionizing sources from models and find they are in agreement only with SEDs of late O stars augmented at the highest frequencies with interstellar X-rays from fast shocks. We suggest that although the gas, from its velocity structure, must be part of the very young Sgr B2 complex, the stars that are ionizing the gas were not formed there but are the remnants of a previous generation of star formation in the GC.

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FIFI-LS: The Field-Imaging Far-Infrared Line Spectrometer on SOFIA

Cited by 65 publications

References 19 publications

Jet-related Excitation of the [C ii] Emission in the Active Galaxy NGC 4258 with SOFIA

Jet-related Excitation of the [C ii] Emission in the Active Galaxy NGC 4258 with SOFIA

SOFIA Flight Planning and Execution

SOFIA FIFI-LS Observations of Sgr B1: Ionization Structure and Sources of Excitation

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