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Session 9 - SOFIA and IR Instrumentation.
Display session, Wednesday, January 07
Exhibit Hall,
FORCAST is a facility-class, mid/far-infrared camera for SOFIA. Si:Sb blocked-impurity-band detector array technology to provide high-sensitivity wide-field imaging, FORCAST will sample at 0.75 arcsec/pixel giving a 3.2'x3.2' instantaneous field of view. Selectable filters provide for continuum imaging in the 16-40 micron region. Diffraction limited imaging will be obtained for all wave- lengths. Large objects can be easily imaged and for small objects, chopping can be performed on the array to increase duty-cycle (sensitivity). FORCAST will provide the highest spatial resolutions possible with SOFIA. The FORCAST instrument uses mature, low risk, state of the art technology ensuring high reliability.
The science projects planned by the investigator team include mulitcolor imaging of the galactic center, Vega-like dust clouds, and star formation in normal spiral galaxies and active galaxies. This instrument will be of great value to the SOFIA community for imaging protostellar environments, young star clusters, molecular clouds, and galaxies. Multicolor information allows determination of dust temperatures, dust optical depths (and dust mass), dust composition, location of ionizing sources, and the spatial morphology of star forming regions.
