History of infrared telescopes and astronomy

Abstract

The first attempts to measure the infrared outputs of stars preceded by nearly a century the permanent establishment of infrared astronomy as an important aspect of the field. There were a number of false starts in that century, significant efforts that had little impact on the astronomical community at large. Why did these efforts fizzle out? What was different in the start that did not fizzle, in the 1960s? I suggest that the most important advances were the success of radio astronomy in demonstrating interesting phenomena outside of the optical regime, and the establishment virtually simultaneously in the United States of a number of research groups that could support each other and compete against one another in their approach to infrared astronomy.

Reconfigurable and Polarization‐Dependent Grating Absorber for Large‐Area Emissivity Control Based on the Plasmonic Phase‐Change Material In3SbTe2

“…Control over infrared radiation has driven many innovations in various technological areas such as radiative cooling and heating, [ 1,2 ] thermal camouflage, [ 3–6 ] chemical sensing, [ 7,8 ] or astronomy. [ 9 ] In general, thermal emission of objects depends on their corresponding non‐zero temperatures and emissivities. Kirchhoff's law of thermal emission describes that the emissivity of an object is equal to the absorbance in thermal equilibrium.…”

“…astronomy. [9] In general, thermal emission of objects depends on their corresponding non-zero temperatures and emissivities. Kirchhoff's law of thermal emission describes that the emissivity of an object is equal to the absorbance in thermal equilibrium.…”

Infrared detectors enable spectacular infrared astronomy

“…Various attempts at infrared astronomy prior to 1910 were marked by enthusiasm and naiveté more than success (see reviews by Rieke 2009; Rowan‐Robinson 2013). This changed with William Coblentz, who introduced the vacuum thermocouple to the cause, a detector with greatly improved sensitivity and stability compared with those used previously.…”

How to search for multiple messengers -- a general framework beyond two messengers

“…Astronomy has started via observations made in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum in ancient times [1,2]. As the technology and physics knowledge of humanity developed, more and better observations were made with new equipment and via new messengers; such as the whole electromagnetic spectrum [3][4][5][6][7][8], cosmic rays [9,10], neutrinos [11] and recently gravitational waves [12]. The new messengers have made it possible to observe events which had not been possible before, as well as to gather a more complete picture of a single event by probing different processes of it.…”