Improved performances and capabilities of the Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (COMICS) for the Subaru Telescope

We describe the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) which is presently operating as a facility instrument on the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). FORCAST provides imaging and moderate resolution spectroscopy capability over the 5–40[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m wavelength range. In imaging mode, FORCAST has a 3.4[Formula: see text] field-of-view with 0.768[Formula: see text] pixels. Using grisms, FORCAST provides long-slit low-resolution ([Formula: see text]–300) and short-slit, cross-dispersed medium-resolution spectroscopic modes ([Formula: see text]–1200) over select wavelengths. Preceded by both Spitzer and Herschel, the discovery phase space for FORCAST lies in providing unique photometric bands and/or spectroscopic coverage, higher spatial resolution and exploration of the brightest sources which typically saturate space observatories.

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Gravitational Lensing and Deep Infrared Surveys

Symposium - International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s0074180900226119 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 204 ◽

pp. 217-232

Author(s):

Leo Metcalfe ◽

B. Mcbreen ◽

J.-P. Kneib ◽

B. Altieri

Keyword(s):

Gravitational Lensing ◽

Infrared Camera ◽

Clusters Of Galaxies ◽

Substantial Fraction ◽

Mid Infrared ◽

X Ray ◽

Faint Galaxy ◽

Infrared Surveys ◽

Source Populations ◽

Galaxy Population

ISO's infrared camera was used to make deep mid-infrared (MIR) images through three gravitationally lensing clusters of galaxies. Observations were made at 7 μm and 15 μm covering more than 50 square arcminutes, with the lensing increasing the sensitivity to background sources significantly.A large number of MIR sources were detected behind the lenses and provide source counts, corrected for cluster contamination and lensing distortion effects, which exceed by a factor of 10 the expectation from local counts assuming a no-evolution model. The results are consistent with larger-area surveys and the detected population resolves a substantial fraction (of order 60%) of the background MIR radiation intensity into discrete sources.We discuss the evidence, in large part derived from lensing cluster observations, for overlap of the ISO 15 μm faint galaxy population with the 850 μm submillimetre and the 0.5 to 7 keV X-ray populations. We find that the ISO data shows substantial overlap with both the submillimetre and the X-ray source populations, with roughly 25% of ISO sources being detected at submillimetre wavelengths and a significant number of Chandra X-ray sources being detected in the ISO data.

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