Astrophysics

Analysing greenhouse gas emissions of an astronomical institute is a first step in reducing its environmental impact. Here, we break down the emissions of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and propose measures for reductions.

The HERMES-TP/SP mission, based on a nanosatellite constellation, has very stringent constraints of sensitivity and compactness, and requires an innovative wide energy range instrument. The instrument technology is based on the "siswich" concept, in which custom-designed, low-noise Silicon Drift Detectors are used to simultaneously detect soft X-rays and to readout the optical light produced by the interaction of higher energy photons in GAGG:Ce scintillators. To preserve the inherent excellent spectroscopic performances of SDDs, advanced readout electronics is necessary. In this paper, the HERMES detector architecture concept will be described in detail, as well as the specifically developed front-end ASICs (LYRA-FE and LYRA-BE) and integration solutions. The experimental performance of the integrated system composed by scintillator+SDD+LYRA ASIC will be discussed, demonstrating that the requirements of a wide energy range sensitivity, from 2 keV up to 2 MeV, are met in a compact instrument.

In the new era of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) currently under construction, challenging requirements drive spectrograph designs towards techniques that efficiently use a facility's light collection power. Operating in the single-mode (SM) regime, close to the diffraction limit, reduces the footprint of the instrument compared to a conventional high-resolving power spectrograph. The custom built injection fiber system with 3D-printed micro-lenses on top of it for the replicable high-resolution exoplanet and asteroseismology spectrograph at Subaru in combination with extreme adaptive optics of SCExAO, proved its high efficiency in a lab environment, manifesting up to ~77% of the theoretical predicted performance.

Large multi-object spectroscopic surveys require automated algorithms to optimise their observing strategy. One of the most ambitious upcoming spectroscopic surveys is the 4MOST survey. The 4MOST survey facility is a fibre-fed spectroscopic instrument on the VISTA telescope with a large enough field of view to survey a large fraction of the southern sky within a few years. Several Galactic and extragalactic surveys will be carried out simultaneously, so the combined target density will strongly vary. In this paper, we describe a new tiling algorithm that can naturally deal with the large target density variations on the sky and which automatically handles the different exposure times of targets. The tiling pattern is modelled as a marked point process, which is characterised by a probability density that integrates the requirements imposed by the 4MOST survey. The optimal tilling pattern with respect to the defined model is estimated by the tiles configuration that maximises the proposed probability density. In order to achieve this maximisation a simulated annealing algorithm is implemented. The algorithm automatically finds an optimal tiling pattern and assigns a tentative sky brightness condition and exposure time for each tile, while minimising the total execution time that is needed to observe the list of targets in the combined input catalogue of all surveys. Hence, the algorithm maximises the long-term observing efficiency and provides an optimal tiling solution for the survey. While designed for the 4MOST survey, the algorithm is flexible and can with simple modifications be applied to any other multi-object spectroscopic survey.

Stellar population synthesis is an important method in the galaxy and star-cluster studies. In the stellar population synthesis models, stellar spectral library is necessary for the integrated spectra of the stellar population. Usually, the stellar spectral library is used to the transformation between the stellar atmospheric parameters and the stellar spectrum. The empirical stellar spectral library has irreplaceable advantages than the theoretical library. However, for the empirical spectral library, the distribution of stars is irregularly in the stellar atmospheric parameter space, this makes the traditional interpolator difficult to get the accurate results. In this work, we will provide an improved radial basis function interpolator which is used to obtain the interpolated stellar spectra based on the empirical stellar spectral library. For this interpolator, we use the relation between the standard variance {\sigma} in the Gaussian radial basis function and the density distribution of stars in the stellar atmospheric parameter space to give the prior constraint on this {\sigma}. Moreover, we also consider the anisotropic radius basis function by the advantage of the local dispersion of stars in the stellar atmospheric parameter space. Furthermore, we use the empirical stellar spectral library MILES to test this interpolator. On the whole, the interpolator has a good performance except for the edge of the low-temperature region. At last, we compare this interpolator with the work in Cheng et al. (2018), the interpolation result shows an obvious improvement. Users can use this interpolator to get the interpolated spectra based on the stellar spectral library quickly and easily.

To make the historical radio telescope of A.Ü. Kreiken Observatory that includes full-wavelength VHF and UHF dipole arrays operational, the antenna rotator mechanism is renovated and the antenna matching structure is designed in a simulation environment. The matching structure is designed by using short-circuited parallel transmission line stubs. The use of high-gain full-wavelength elements, as opposed to the conventional half-wavelength elements, increases the importance of the structure and the matching method. -- A.Ü. Kreiken Rasathanesinde bulunan, tam dalgaboyunda dipol elemanlara sahip VHF ve UHF anten dizilerinden oluşan tarihi radyo teleskobun faal hale getirilmesi için anten yönlendirme mekanizmasi incelenip tamir edilmiş, teleskop anteninin uyumlama tasarimi benzetim ortaminda gerçekleştirilmiştir. Kisa devre ile sonlandirilmiş paralel iletim hatti saplamalari kullanarak uyumlama tasarlanmiştir. Dipol anten elemanlarinin boyunun yaygin tercih edilen yarim dalgaboyu yerine yüksek kazançli tam dalgaboyu olmasi, antenin ve uyumlama yönteminin önemini artirmaktadir.

Mixed space-time spectral analysis was applied for the detection of seismic waves passing through the west-end building of the Virgo interferometer. The method enables detection of every single passing wave, including its frequency, length, direction, and amplitude. A thorough analysis aimed to improving sensitivity of the Virgo detector was made for the data gathered by 38 seismic sensors, in the two-week measurement period, from 24 January to 6 February 2018, and for frequency range 5--20 Hz. Two dominant seismic-wave frequencies were found: 5.5 Hz and 17.1 Hz. The possible sources of these waves were identified, that is, the nearby industrial complex for the frequency 5.5 Hz and a small object 100 m away from the west-end buiding for 17.1 Hz. The obtained results are going to be used to provide better estimation of the newtonian noise near the Virgo interferometer.

We present the data reduction software and the distribution of Level 1 and Level 2 products of the Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory 2 (STO2). STO2, a balloon-borne Terahertz telescope, surveyed star-forming regions and the Galactic plane and produced approximately 300,000 spectra. The data are largely similar to spectra typically produced by single-dish radio telescopes. However, a fraction of the data contained rapidly varying fringe/baseline features and drift noise, which could not be adequately corrected using conventional data reduction software. To process the entire science data of the STO2 mission, we have adopted a new method to find proper off-source spectra to reduce large-amplitude fringes and new algorithms including Asymmetric Least Square (ALS), Independent Component Analysis (ICA), and Density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN). The STO2 data reduction software efficiently reduced the amplitude of fringes from a few hundred to 10 K and resulted in baselines of amplitude down to a few K. The Level 1 products typically have the noise of a few K in [CII] spectra and ~1 K in [NII] spectra. Using a regridding algorithm, we made spectral maps of star-forming regions and the Galactic plane survey using an algorithm employing a Bessel-Gaussian kernel. Level 1 and 2 products are available to the astronomical community through the STO2 data server and the DataVerse. The software is also accessible to the public through Github. The detailed addresses are given in Section 4 of the paper on data distribution.

We advocate for a mission concept study for a space telescope dedicated to solar system science in Earth orbit. Such a study was recommended by the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS) report "Getting Ready for the Next Planetary Science Decadal Survey." The Mid-Decadal Review also recommended NASA to assess the role and value of space telescopes for planetary science. The need for high-resolution, UV-Visible capabilities is especially acute for planetary science with the impending end of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST); however, NASA has not funded a planetary telescope concept study, and the need to assess its value remains. Here, we present potential design options that should be explored to inform the decadal survey.

ArielRad, the Ariel radiometric model, is a simulator developed to address the challenges in optimising the space mission science payload and to demonstrate its compliance with the performance requirements. Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, has been selected by ESA as the M4 mission in the Cosmic Vision programme and, during its 4 years primary operation, will provide the first unbiased spectroscopic survey of a large and diverse sample of transiting exoplanet atmospheres. To allow for an accurate study of the mission, ArielRad uses a physically motivated noise model to estimate contributions arising from stationary processes, and includes margins for correlated and time-dependent noise sources. We show that the measurement uncertainties are dominated by the photon statistic,and that an observing programme with about 1000 exoplanetary targets can be completed during the primary mission lifetime.