1. Current Activities of TIFR Infrared Group & Plans for Near Future Swarna Kanti Ghosh, Bhaswati Mookerjea, Devendra Ojha Scientific and Technical Staff : S L D’Costa, M B Naik, S S Poojary, P Sandimani, C B Bakalkar, G S Meshram, D M Patkar, R B Jadhav

2. Central Research Theme The study of Interstellar Medium (ISM) in relation to Star Formation in our Galaxy and nearby galaxies - Properties of interstellar dust and gas - Multi-wavelength studies

3. Current Research Activities Far Infrared (FIR) studies: High angular resolution (~ 1') mapping of Galactic Star Forming Regions (GSFRs) using TIFR 100 cm balloon borne telescope (from TIFR Balloon Facility, Hyderabad) * **  in two FIR bands (150 & 210  m ) * **  in astrophysically important [C II] line at 158  m using Fabry Perot Spectrometer, FPS (TIFR – Japan collaboration) * **

4. Current Research Activities cont…. Near Infrared (NIR), Optical & Radio continuum studies of GSFRs (Ground-based) :  Using NIR imager (including TIFR 1 - 5 µm camera: TIRCAM) * **  Optical imagers / spectrometers from various ground based telescopes at the National observatories (at Mount Abu, Hanle, Nainital; GMRT) * * * **  H 2 (1-0)S1 – rotational-vibrational line of molecular hydrogen (2.12 µm) (shocked gas) * * *  Br  – hydrogen recombination line (2.16 µm) (Ionized gas)  H , [S II], [O III],… narrow-band imaging: Ionized/shocked emission  Optical spectroscopy: Ionizing source(s), Embedded PMS stars, Nebular characteristics  Slitless Spectroscopy Surveys: Search for H  emission stars of T Tauri and related types (TTSs) as well as of Herbig-Haro objects

5. Current Research Activities cont…. International facilities (through competitive, peer- reviewed observing proposals and archival databases): VLT, UKIRT, SUBARU, SPITZER, MSX, ISO, AKARI, JCMT Numerical modelling: - Radiative transfer; - UIB emission from the MSX & Spitzer bands; - Model of stellar population synthesis of the Galaxy

6. In Near Future….. NIR imager for 2 meter Himalayan Chandra Telescope NIR imager for 2 meter Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT), Hanle (Ladakh) (HCT), Hanle (Ladakh) TIRCAM-II  Upgradation of TIRCAM-I  A large format NIR array (Aladdin III quadrant InSb 512 x 512 pixels; 1 - 5 µm) has been procured from Raytheon, USA, to upgrade the TIRCAM-I (58 x 62 pixels). * * **  The upgradation work is nearly complete for the NIR imaging (PAH, nbL’, M-band) beyond 2 µm with 2 meter HCT in Hanle, Ladakh (altitude ~ 4,517 meter) **

7. Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSPEC) for Large Aperture Indian Telescopes (D tel ≥ 2 meter)  Plan to develop a NIR spectrometer (with imaging capabilities) based on 1024 x 1024 HgCdTe focal plane array (Rockwell HAWAII-I 1K PACE detector) for use with large aperture (D tel  2 meter) ground-based Indian telescopes

8. NIRSPEC NIRSPEC (General Specifications): Optical Feeds : ARIES, Nainital 3.6 meter (by 2012) ** Optical design f#9 FOV 6.8 arcminutes Pixel size ~0.4 arcseconds Imaging : 1 - 2.5 microns Filters : J, H, K, H 2, Br Gamma, Kcont, CO, [Fe II] & few others Spectroscopic mode : Resolving power of 1,000 to 3,000 Slit width of 0.8 and 1.2 pixels Slit length > 4 arcminutes Two Grisms (JH & HK wavelength range)

9. Sub-mm Astronomy from Hanle (Ladakh); Time sharing in large telescopes (e.g., UKIRT, Gemini) ?

10. Thank You !

11. TIFR 100 cm Balloon Borne Far Infrared Telescope (on Launch Arm) Primary : 100 cm aluminium ; Mass ~ 850 Kg No. of launches : 20 “T100” payload Final map resolution ~ 1.0 arc min (@ 200  m)

13. @ 0.3 K

14. RCW 106 Southern Galactic star forming region Distance ~ 3.6 kpc 23 discrete COLD sources (M ≥ 15 M sun ) TIFR - 150 μm TIFR - 210 μm T ~ 20 - 40 KPeak optical depth ~ 0.10 Dust emission in far infrared Spatial distribution of dust temperature & optical depth T 150/210  210 ~ 1.2 deg 2

15. Fabry Perot Spectrometer (FPS) ISAS (Institute of Space & Astronautical Science, Japan) Tuned to [CII] line at 157.7 µm Detector – Stressed Ge:Ga Photoconductor Spectral Resolution – ~1700 (175 km/s) Spectral Range – 157.41 µm to 158.57 µm Spatial Resolution -- 1.4’ Detection Limit – 3 x 10 -5 ergs s -1 cm -2 sr -1

16. Far Infrared Spectroscopic mapping of Orion-A ( [C II] line at 158  m – most efficient coolant of the interstellar gas at ~ 100 K )

17. TIFR NEAR INFRARED CAMERA (SBRC 58 x 62 InSb FPA)

24. Fabry Perot Spectrometer (FPS) (developed at ISAS, Japan & adapted for T100) Spectral Resolution (R) ~ 1700 Spectral scanning range ~ 63.2 – 63.5 cm^-1 (157.4  m – 158.2  m) Stressed Ge:Ga photoconductor (Spectral Response) Scanning Fabry Perot Basic configuration of the FPS

26. TIFR FIR 130 and 200 μm maps probe the cold dust T ~ 34 K (assuming  λ  λ -2 ) IRAS-HIRES 12 and 25 μm maps have been used to obtain T(12/25) and  25 (assuming  λ  λ -1 ) T(12/25) Contours are 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 95% of peak optical depth (0.001)  25 Isotherms are 100, 110, 120, 125, 135, 140, 150, 170 K Spatial distribution of Dust Temperature, etc

27. Radio emission from ionised gas Date of Observation - 28 Oct'01 Primary beam - 26.1’ Synthesized beam - 7.5” x 3.8” Position angle - -34.4 o noise in map - 0.8 mJy/bm Cont. Bandwidth - 16 Phase calibrators - 2011-067 IRAS 19111+1048 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 IRAS 19110+1045 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 GMRT - 1280 MHz

28. Results from radiative transfer modeling IRAS 19111+1048 IRAS 19110+1045

29. 512 x 512 InSb Array (Aladdin III quadrant)

32. TIRCAM-II : TIRCAM-II : Preparation for MUX installation

33. TIRCAM-II (with MUX)

34. (Another view …)

35. (on the launch field …)

36. TIFR Balloon Facility, Hyderabad

37. (Another view of the TIFR Balloon Facility) (High ceiling lab. to house T100; S-band telemetry antenna)

38. Balloon filling (with Hydrogen gas) in progress …

39. The launch …..

40. A few seconds after the launch …