The Sofia Observatory at the Start of Routine Science Operations: Mission Capabilities and Performance

Temi, P.; Marcum, Pamela M.; Young, Erick T.; Adams, Joseph D.; Adams, Sybil; Andersson, B. G.; Becklin, E. E.; Boogert, A. C. A.; Brewster, Rick; Burgh, Eric B.; Cobleigh, Brent R.; Culp, Steven; Buizer, Jim De; Dunham, E. W.; Engfer, Christian; Ediss, G. A.; Fujieh, Maura; Grashuis, R.; Groß, Michael; Harmon, Edward; Helton, Andrew; Hoffman, Douglas; Homan, Jeff; Hütwohl, Michael; Jakob, H.; Jensen, Stephen C.; Kaminski, C.; Kozarsky, Daniel; Krabbe, A.; Klein, Randolf; Lammen, Yannick; Lampater, Ulrich; Latter, William B.; Le, Jeanette; McKown, Nancy; Melchiorri, R.; Meyer, A. W.; Miles, John W.; Miller, Walter E.; Miller, Scott; Moore, E. M.; Nickison, Donald J.; Opshaug, Kortney; Pfueller, E.; Radomski, J. T.; Rasmussen, John J.; Reach, W. T.; Reinacher, Andreas; Roellig, Thomas L.; Sandell, G.; Sankrit, Ravi; Savage, Maureen L.; Shenoy, S.; Schonfeld, Julie; Shuping, R. Y.; Smith, Erin C.; Talebi, Ehsan; Teufel, Stefan; Tseng, Ting; Vacca, William D.; Vaillancourt, John E.; Cleve, Jeffrey E. Van; Wiedemann, Manuel; Wolf, Jürgen; Zavala, Eddie; Zeile, Oliver; Zell, Peter T.; Zinnecker, H.

doi:10.1088/0067-0049/212/2/24

Cited by 50 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…The maps of the H 2 rotational line images were produced by fitting and removing the baseline near the line and then calculating the total line intensity. We also use a velocityresolved [C II] spectrum from the GREAT heterodyne instrument (Heyminck et al 2012) on board the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA; Temi et al 2014) from the SMC survey presented in R. Herrera-Camus et al (2017, in preparation).…”

Section: Additional Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

First Results from the Herschel and ALMA Spectroscopic Surveys of the SMC: The Relationship between [C ii]-bright Gas and CO-bright Gas at Low Metallicity*

Jameson

Bolatto

Wolfire

et al. 2018

ApJ

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The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) provides the only laboratory to study the structure of molecular gas at high resolution and low metallicity. We present results from the Herschel Spectroscopic Survey of the SMC (HS   ( 3 < pc) scales. We estimate A V using far-IR thermal continuum emission from dust and find that the CO/[C II] ratios reach the Milky Way value at high A V in the centers of the clouds and fall to 1 5 1 10-the Milky Way value in the outskirts, indicating the presence of translucent molecular gas not traced by bright CO 12 emission. We estimate the amount of molecular gas traced by bright [C II] emission at low A V and bright CO 12 emission at high A V . We find that most of the molecular gas is at low A V and traced by bright [C II] emission, but that faint CO 12 emission appears to extend to where we estimate that the H 2 -to-H I transition occurs. By converting our H 2 gas estimates to a CO-to-H 2 conversion factor (X CO ), we show that X CO is primarily a function of A V , consistent with simulations and models of low-metallicity molecular clouds.

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Section: Additional Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

First Results from the Herschel and ALMA Spectroscopic Surveys of the SMC: The Relationship between [C ii]-bright Gas and CO-bright Gas at Low Metallicity*

Jameson

Bolatto

Wolfire

et al. 2018

ApJ

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“…More importantly, this event occurred just 17 • from a 99% illuminated moon and the occulted star was the faintest star of the four. The largest effort went into supporting an observation with SOFIA (Temi et al 2014). Data were collected at other fixed sites but in the end were less constraining than the Gemini data from 2017-06-03.…”

Section: July 10 Eventmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size and Shape Constraints of (486958) Arrokoth from Stellar Occultations

Buie

Porter

Tamblyn

et al. 2020

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We present the results from four stellar occultations by (486958) Arrokoth, the flyby target of the New Horizons extended mission. Three of the four efforts led to positive detections of the body, and all constrained the presence of rings and other debris, finding none. Twenty-five mobile stations were deployed for 2017 June 3 and augmented by fixed telescopes. There were no positive detections from this effort. The event on 2017 July 10 was observed by SOFIA with one very short chord. Twenty-four deployed stations on 2017 July 17 resulted in five chords that clearly showed a complicated shape consistent with a contact binary with rough dimensions of 20 by 30 km for the overall outline. A visible albedo of 10% was derived from these data. Twenty-two systems were deployed for the fourth event on 2018 Aug 4 and resulted in two chords. The combination of the occultation data and the flyby results provides a significant refinement of the rotation period, now estimated to be 15.9380 ± 0.0005 hours. The occultation data also provided high-precision astrometric constraints on the position of the object that were crucial for supporting the navigation for the New Horizons flyby. This work demonstrates an effective method for obtaining detailed size and shape information and probing for rings and dust on distant Kuiper Belt objects as well as being an important source of positional data that can aid in spacecraft navigation that is particularly useful for small and distant bodies.

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“…In this paper, we present new data that directly address the questions of the multiplicity and physical properties (temperature, mass, and luminosity) of the massive protoclusters traced by EGOs. We have utilized the unique capabilities of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA, Temi et al 2014) to image a well-studied sample of 12 EGOs at two mid-IR wavelengths: 19.7 and 37.1 µm with the necessary sensitivity (∼0.05 to ∼0.25 Jy beam −1 ) and angular resolution (∼ 3 ) to detect and resolve the mid-infrared emission from the massive protocluster members. By combining these results with ancillary multi-wavelength archival data, we create well-constrained SEDs from the near-infrared through submillimeter regimes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SOFIA FORCAST Photometry of 12 Extended Green Objects in the Milky Way

Towner

Brogan

Hunter

et al. 2019

ApJ

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Massive young stellar objects are known to undergo an evolutionary phase in which high mass accretion rates drive strong outflows. A class of objects believed to trace this phase accurately is the GLIMPSE Extended Green Object (EGO) sample, so named for the presence of extended 4.5 µm emission on sizescales of ∼0.1 pc in Spitzer images. We have been conducting a multi-wavelength examination of a sample of 12 EGOs with distances of 1 to 5 kpc. In this paper, we present mid-infrared images and photometry of these EGOs obtained with the SOFIA telescope, and subsequently construct SEDs for these sources from the near-IR to sub-millimeter regimes using additional archival data. We compare the results from greybody models and several publicly-available software packages which produce model SEDs in the context of a single massive protostar. The models yield typical R ∼10 R , T ∼10 3 to 10 4 K, and L ∼1 − 40 × 10 3 L ; the median L/M for our sample is 24.7 L /M . Model results rarely converge for R and T , but do for L , which we take to be an indication of the multiplicity and inherently clustered nature of these sources even though, typically, only a single source dominates in the mid-infrared. The median L/M value for the sample suggests that these objects may be in a transitional stage between the commonly described "IR-quiet" and "IR-bright" stages of MYSO evolution. The median T dust for the sample is less conclusive, but suggests that these objects are either in this transitional stage or occupy the cooler (and presumably younger) part of the IR-bright stage.

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The Sofia Observatory at the Start of Routine Science Operations: Mission Capabilities and Performance

Cited by 50 publications

References 41 publications

First Results from the Herschel and ALMA Spectroscopic Surveys of the SMC: The Relationship between [C ii]-bright Gas and CO-bright Gas at Low Metallicity*

First Results from the Herschel and ALMA Spectroscopic Surveys of the SMC: The Relationship between [C ii]-bright Gas and CO-bright Gas at Low Metallicity*

Size and Shape Constraints of (486958) Arrokoth from Stellar Occultations

SOFIA FORCAST Photometry of 12 Extended Green Objects in the Milky Way

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