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CURRENT TEAMS
New Teams Coming Soon!
+ Round 4
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Round 2 - Deciphering IR Excess Observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope
in Short Period Interacting Cataclysmic Binaries
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Abstract
During the first year of the Spitzer Space Telescope Observing Program
for Students and Teachers, our team observed a small sample of short
orbital period interacting white dwarf binaries. Our scientific
investigation was aimed at detection and characterization of the low
mass, cool, brown dwarf-like mass donors in these systems. We used the
Infrared Array Camera to obtain photometric observations of the polars
EF Eri, GG Leo, V347 Pav, and RX J0154.0-5947 at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and
8.0 microns. In all our targets, we detected excess emission in the
3-8 micron region over that expected from a brown dwarf alone.
One of the exciting discoveries we made with our IRAC observations is
that the star EF Eri was found to be unexpectedly bright in the mid-IR
(compared to its 2MASS magnitudes). This fact highlights an
opportunity for us to observe EF Eri with the IRS as a follow-up
proposal. We plan to obtain SL1 (7.4-14.5 microns) and SL2 (5.2-8.7
microns) spectroscopy only. We know the IRAC fluxes so our integration
times are well constrained and the spectral region covered by SL1, SL2
will yield sufficient S/N to differentiate between cool dust (rising
BB like spectrum with PAH and other molecular features allowing us to
determine dust size, temperature, and disk extent) and a T type dwarf
showing characteristic spectral signatures and a falling
Rayleigh-Jeans tail.
Click on any teacher's name to see activities associated with NITARP.
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Lead Teacher:
Participating Teachers:
Support Scientists:
Dr. Steve Howell
National Optical Astronomical Observatory, Tucson, AZ
Dr. Don Hoard
Spitzer Science Center, Pasadena, CA
Dr. David Ciardi
Michelson Science Center, Pasadena, CA
Dr. Carolyn Brinkworth
Spitzer Science Center, Pasadena, CA
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Program News
Proposal - pdf
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