[22.13] The SIRTF First Look Survey: Plans and Early Results

AAS 203rd Meeting, January 2004
Session 22 First Results from the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)
Poster, Monday, January 5, 2004, 9:20am-6:30pm, Hanover Hall

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[22.13] The SIRTF First Look Survey: Plans and Early Results

L. Storrie-Lombardi (SSC, Caltech), SIRTF First Look Survey Team

On behalf of the SIRTF user community the SIRTF Science Center will conduct a First-Look Survey (FLS) following the completion of the 90-day In-Orbit Checkout and Science Verification periods. The FLS is the inaugural Director's Discretionary Time program. This 110-hour survey will provide a characteristic "first-look" at the mid-infrared sky at sensitivities that are ~100 times deeper than previous systematic large-area surveys.

The FLS is composed of extragalactic, galactic, and ecliptic components with the following goals. EXTRAGALACTIC: (1) Detect enough extragalactic sources at unexplored sensitivity levels in order to generate a representative sample and to reduce the uncertainties in source counts. (2) Characterize the dominant source populations with both MIPS and IRAC data from SIRTF, plus ancillary data at optical, near-infrared and radio wavelengths. (3) Explore the cirrus foreground at moderately high galactic latitudes, and its effect on point-source detectability. GALACTIC: (1) Characterize the cirrus and background source counts at low galactic latitudes. (2) Characterize the extent and brightness of the extended and point source emission from a representative, nearby molecular cloud complex in the IRAC and MIPS bandpasses. ECLIPTIC: (1) Derive number counts and scale heights for main belt asteroids, down to < 1km in diameter. (2) Characterize the zodiacal light as a function of distance from the ecliptic plane.

Representative observations are planned to be released in January, 2004 to support the preparation of proposals for the first General Observer Proposal Call. The SSC will release all of the FLS data when the Science Archive opens (currently scheduled for May, 2004). We present here the first results from the components that have been executed and plans for the rest of the survey.

If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://sirtf.caltech.edu/SSC/fls. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.

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