Spitzer Space Telescope Research Program for Teachers and Students

PROGRAM INFORMATION + Home Page + Round 1 + Round 2 + Program News + Education & Outreach + Educational Products + AAS Posters + Photos + Press Releases + Teacher Assignments + Visiting the SSC OBSERVING PROPOSALS Star Formation in Lynds Dark Nebulae + Round 3 Spitzer Light Curve of Z Cha + Round 3 Star Formation in High Redshift Clusters with Spitzer + Round 2 Young Stars in IC 2118 + Round 1 + Round 2 Observing Iron Stars with Spitzer + Round 1 Intergalactic Star Formation in Tidal Dwarf Galaxies of M81 + Round 1 AGN Spectral Energy Distributions of GLAST Telescope Network Program Objects + Round 1 + Round 2 + Student Project The Supermassive Black Hole in Arp102B + Round 1 Detecting Brown Dwarfs in Interacting Cataclysmic Binaries + Round 1 + Round 2

AGN Spectral Energy Distributions of GLAST Telescope Network Program Objects The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) has a proposed observing list that includes AGNs and Polars bright enough to be observed optically by amateurs and students. This observing list is maintained by the "GLAST Telescope Network" (GTN) and includes a number of objects that have yet to be observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our project will observe one of these objects with the Spitzer MIPS and the IRAC instruments to determine their Spectral Energy Distribution (SED), which will be compared to a computer model of disk emission in order to determine what component of the SED is due to the disk and what component is due to synchrotron radiation induced by the jets. In addition we will observe our program objects prior to, simultaneously with, and after Spitzer observes them. This gives a direct connection from Spitzer research to student activities in the classroom. Lead Teacher: Jeff Adkins Deer Valley High School Antioch, CA Participating Teachers: Steve Rapp Linwood Holton Governor's School, Abingdon, VA Linda Stefaniak Allentown High School, Allentown, NJ Support Scientist: Dr. Mark Lacy Spitzer Science Center, Pasadena, CA Proposal News Observer Support Site Work Summary:       October 2005       September 2005       July 2005       June 2005 - pdf file       May 2005 - pdf file       April 2005 - pdf file       March 2005 - pdf file Proposal - pdf file AOR - pdf file Proposed Observation Time IRAC Mapping and MIPS Photometry to determine the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) Target Instrument Exposure Time wavelength in microns (u) - time in seconds Cycles Integration Time Total Resource Time needed Comments GTN 7 4c 29.45 MIPS Photometry 24 u = 3 70 u = 3 160 u=10 24 u=1 70 u=1 160u=3 24u=42s 70u=30s 160u=60s 1110 s 24,70 u predicted to have large signal/noise; reduced cycles to save time GTN 7 4c 29.45 IRAC Mapping 3.6 u = 10 s 5.8 u = 10 s 4.5 u = 10 s 8.0 u = 10 s     378.1 s Gaussian 5 dithering, Large Scale. Visibility: 7 4C 29.45 11:59:31.8 14 May 05- 27 Jun 05 Beg. window: 81º at 8:30 PM End window: culminates before sunset: altitude 66 º at 7:30 PM 7 4C 29.45 29:14:44 16 Dec 05- 28 Jan 06 Beg. window: 81 º at 6:41 AM End window: 81º at 3:40 AM Status: MIPS and IRAC Observed and Archived The project was approved by the Spitzer Science Center director. He selected one of our four potential AGNs as our primary target (GTN #7, 4C 29.45) and we edited the proposal to reflect this change. After this decision, Mark Lacy reworked the AORs to refine the time needed to gather the data. This message from Mark summarizes the change in the AOR: ..... juggled the MIPS exposure times to make sure we get a detection at 160mu (the least sensitive wavelength). I've kept the total length of the AOR almost the same (in fact it's 10s shorter), but the MIPS AOR changed old: 24mu 3s x 3 cycles        70mu 3s x 5 cycles      160mu 3s x 5 cycles new: 24mu 3s x 1 cycles       70mu 3s x 1 cycles       160mu 10s x 3 cycles IRAC was fine as is. The proposal has been sent to the scheduling team but as of this writing they have not contacted us. The optimum observing window is in May, therefore we expect to hear from them sometime in April.