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J. Edelstein, E.K. Korpela, B.Y. Welsh (SSL, UC Berkeley), K.W. Min, K.S. Ryu (SaTReC, KAIST), W. Han, D.H. Lee, I.S. Yuk, J.H. Park (KAO), Space Astrophysics Group SPEAR Team, Korea Advanced Institute of Technology FIMS Team, Korea Astronomy Observatory FIMS Team
The Spectroscopy of Plasma Evolution from Astrophysical Radiation (SPEAR), aboard the STSAT-1 satellite, began observations of the cosmic far ultraviolet background emission in late 2003. The primary science objectives of the mission are to determine the distribution and evolution of the multiphase Galactic interstellar medium (ISM) and to understand interfaces and transitions in hot interstellar plasma.
SPEAR, also know as FIMS, observes spectral images over a wide simultaneous band-pass (900-1150 Angstrom and 1350-1730 Angstrom, resolution ~ 500) in its large field of view (4.5\arcmin x 4.5 deg and 4.5\arcmin x 7.5 deg, resolution ~ 10\arcmin), a regime which includes a number of important atomic and molecular fluorescence lines. The mission plan is to map the entire sky in one year and then to concentrate on pointed observations of selected targets for another one to two years.
We describe the mission and preliminary science and performance results from observations of calibration and demonstration targets including the general ISM, superbubbles, and supernova remnants. We show spectra and images from these targets including the apparent detections of diffuse emission from CIII, CIV, OIII], OVI, molecular hydrogen and other interstellar species.
The SPEAR payload is supported in part by the NASA Research Carriers grant NAG5-5335. The STSAT-1 Mission is supported by the Korea Ministry of Science and Technology.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: jerrye@ssl.berkeley.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
© YEAR. The American Astronomical Soceity.