The First Light of the Subaru Telescope: A New Infrared Image of the Orion Nebula

Abstract

This paper describes the first light and subsequent test observations with the 8.2 m aperture Subaru Telescope constructed at the summit of Mauna Kea. Following the engineering first light, which started 1998 December, the astronomical first light and test observations were carried out in 1999 January with 4 testing instruments under seeing conditions of 0″.2*#x2013;0″.5 for near-infrared and 0″.3–0″.6 for optical wavelengths. The actively supported primary mirror was shown to achieve an overall imaging performance of 0″.1 (FWHM) or better in the absence of any atmospheric disturbance. The pointing accuracy of the telescope is about 1″ rms, and a closed-loop tracking accuracy of ≲ 0″.07 rms has been achieved. Infrared images of the Orion Nebula covering 5′ × 5′, obtained with J, K″, and H2v = 1–0 S(1) filters, have revealed much finer and fainter details of the BN/KL region, the bright bar, and other conspicuous features compared with previous observations. K′ band photometry of 516 point sources yielded a luminosity function with a peak at K′ ∼ 12 mag with a long tail in K′ ∼ 13 mag down to K″ ∼ 17 mag, suggesting a fairly large number of young brown dwarfs existing in the Trapezium cluster. Several new features around the Orion BN/KL region are also reported.

A deep survey of brown dwarfs in Orion with Gemini

“…In recent years several deep near-infrared surveys have begun to characterize the population of brown dwarfs in the Trapezium Cluster (Hillenbrand & Carpenter 2000;Kaifu et al 2000;Lucas & Roche 2000, hereafter LR00;Luhman et al 2000;Muench et al 2002;Lada et al 2004). Some of these surveys were sensitive enough to detect a small population of objects where the masses apparently lie below the deuterium burning threshold at M 0.012 M (13 M Jup ), which we call planetary mass candidates (PMCs).…”

SPIRITS: Uncovering Unusual Infrared Transients with Spitzer

“…Such an event is suggested to have occurred in the OMC1 cloud core in the Orion A molecular cloud located behind the Orion Nebula, the 9 nearest region of ongoing massive star formation (D≈414 pc; Menten et al 2007). The OMC1 outflow consists of a spectacular, wide opening-angle, arcminute-scale (0.1 to 0.3 pc) outflow,which is the brightest source of near-IR H 2 emission in the sky (Allen & Burton 1993;Kaifu et al 2000;Zapata et al 2009;Bally et al 2011Bally et al , 2015. The radial velocity of the brightest part of the H 2 emission exhibits a line-width of less than about 70 km s High-velocity, runaway stars are common among massive stars (Hoogerwerf et al 2000;Gualandris et al 2004).…”

Grism and immersion grating for space telescope

“…Several types of diffraction grating are developed for instruments of the 8.2m Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawai [9][10][11]. Trispec grisms for visible, J-H band and K band were made by replication.…”