FLITECAM is a 1-5 micron infrared camera for NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).
A 1024 ×1024 InSb ALADDIN III detector and large refractive optics provide a field of view of almost 8 arc minutes
in diameter with a scale of just under 0.5 arc seconds per pixel. The instrument is cooled by a double liquid helium and
liquid nitrogen cryostat. Using a collimated beam of about 26 mm diameter, a low resolution spectroscopic mode is also
available using direct-ruled KRS5 grisms and fixed slits of either 1" or 2" width and 60" length to yield resolving
powers of R~1700 and 900 respectively. FLITECAM has been partially commissioned at the 3-m Shane telescope of
Lick Observatory where the f/17 optics of this telescope provides almost the same plate scale as SOFIA. Astronomical
observing requests (scripts) and a real-time data reduction pipeline (DRP) for dithered image patterns have been
demonstrated. The performance of the instrument during ground-based trials is illustrated.
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has produced dramatic images of proto-planetary disks (“proplyds”) surrounding your (<106 year old) stars embedded in the Orion Nebula. The intense UV radiation field of the high-mass Trapezium stars heats the disk surfaces, drives mass-loss, and produces bright ionization fronts. Many disks are seen in silhouette against the nebular background of the Orion Nebula, or against the proplyd’s own ionization front. The sub-arcsecond resolution and light gathering power of the Keck telescopes in the near-IR provide a unique opportunity to study the earliest phases of planetary disk evolution and disk destruction under intense UV radiation fields. We present initial results from observations of a handful of proplyds using KCAM and NIRSPEC, with and without the adaptive optics (AO) system, on Keck II. These data clearly resolve, both spatially and spectrally, ionization fronts, disks, and a microjet. The data are used to constrain mass-loss rates due to photoevaporation, disk surface wind velocity, and grain size distribution.
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