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Solar System Studies with the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)SIRTF (Space Infrared Telescope Facility) is the final element in NASA's 'Great Observatories' program. It consists of an 85-cm cryogenically-cooled observatory for infrared astronomy from space. SIRTF is scheduled for launch in late 2001 or early 2002 on a Delta rocket into a heliocentric orbit trailing the Earth. Data from SIRTF will be processed and disseminated to the community through the SIRTF Science Center (SSC) located at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) at Caltech. Some 80/% of the total observing time (estimated at a minimum of 7500 hours of integration time per year for the mission lifetime of about 4 years) will be available to the scientific community at large through a system of refereed proposals. Three basic instruments are located in the SIRTF focal plane. The Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS), the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), and the Infrared Spectrometer (IRS), taken together, provide imaging and spectroscopy from 3.5 to 160 microns. Among the solar system studies suited to SIRTF are the following: 1) spectroscopy and radiometry of small bodies from the asteroid main belt, through the Trojan clouds, to the Kuiper Disk; 2) dust distribution in the zodiacal cloud and the Earth's heliocentric dust ring; 3) spectroscopy and radiometry of comets; and 4) spectroscopy and radiometry of planets and their satellites. Searches for, and studies of dust disks around other stars, brown dwarfs, and superplanets will also be conducted with SIRTF. The SORTIE web site (http://ssc.ipac.caltech.edu/sirtf) contains important details and documentation on the project, the spacecraft, the telescope, instruments, and observing procedures. A community-wide workshop for solar system studies with SIRTF is in the planning stages by the author and Martha S. Hanner for the summer of 1999.
Document ID
20020076079
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Cruikshank, Dale P.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
DeVincenzi, Donald L.
Date Acquired
August 20, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1998
Subject Category
Astronomy
Meeting Information
Meeting: 30th Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society
Location: Madison, WI
Country: United States
Start Date: October 12, 1998
End Date: October 16, 1998
Sponsors: American Astronomical Society
Funding Number(s)
PROJECT: RTOP 839-01-02-01
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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