Exploring the Universe with the IUE Satellite

769 Pages·1987·38.49 MB·English

by  Albert Boggess, Robert Wilson, Peter J. Barker, Leslie M. Meredith (auth.), Y. Kondo, W. Wamsteker, A. Boggess, M. Grewing, C. De Jager, A. L. Lane, J. L. Linksy, R. Wilson (eds.)

EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE WITH THE IUE SATELLITE
ASTROPHYSICS AND
SPACE SCIENCE LIBRARY
A SERIES OF BOOKS ON THE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF
SPACE SCIENCE AND OF GENERAL GEOPHYSICS AND ASTROPHYSICS
PUBLISHED IN CONNECTION WITH THE JOURNAL
SPACE SCIENCE REVIEWS
Editorial Board
R. L. F. BOYD, University College, London, England
W. B. BURTON, Sterrewacht, Leiden, The Netherlands
L. GOLDBERG, KittPeakNationalObservatory, Tucson, Ariz., U.S.A.
C. DE JAGER, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
J. K L E CZE K, Czechoslovak Academy ofS ciences, Ondrejov, Czechoslovakia
Z. KOPAL, University of Manchester, England
R. LOST, European Space Agency, Paris, France
L. I. SEDOV, Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, U.S.S.R.
Z. SVESTKA, LaboratoryforSpaceResearch, Utrecht, The Netherlands
VOLUME 129
EXPLORING THE
UNIVERSE WITH THE
IUE SAT ELL ITE
Editor in Chief
Y . KONDO
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
Editors
W . W AMSTEKER
IUE Groundstation, Villafranca del Castillo
A . BOGGESS
Sciences Directorate/GSFC, Greenbelt, Maryland
M. GREWING
University ofTiibingen, Tiibingen, F.R.G.
C. D E JAGER
Sterrenwacht 'Sonnenborgh', Utrecht, The Netherlands
A . L. LANE
Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, California
J . L. LINKSY
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, Boulder, Colorado
R. WILSON
University College London, England
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Exploring the universe with the IUE satellite.
(Astrophysics and space science library; v. 129)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Ultraviolet astronomy. 2. IUE (Artificial
satellite) I. Kondo, Yoji. II. Wamsteker, W.
(Willem). III. Series.
QB474.E97 1987 522' .68 87-9807
ISBN 978-94-010-8173-3 ISBN 978-94-009-3753-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-009-3753-6
AII Rights Reserved
© 1987 by Springer Science+ Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland in 1987.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1987
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Y. KONDO I Preface Vll
L. SPITZER, Jr. I Foreword ix
PART I I THE IUE PROJECT 1
A. BOGGESS and R. WILSON I The History ofiUE 3
J. FALKER, F. GORDON, and M. C. W. SANDFORD I Operation of
Multi-Year, Multi-Agency Project 21
PART II I SOLAR SYSTEM 43
H. w. MOOS and TH. ENCRENAZ 1 Planetary Atmospheres and Aurorae 45
R. M. NELSON and A. L. LANE I Planetary Satellites 67
M. C. FESTOU and P. D. FELDMAN I Comets 101
PART III I STARS 119
A. HECK I UV Stellar Spectral Classification 121
J.P. CASSINELLI and H. J. G. L. M. LAMERS I Winds from Hot Young
Stars 139
A. J. WILLIS and C. D. GARMANY I Wolf-Rayet Stars 157
T. P. SNOW and R. STALIOIBeStarPhenomena 183
H. NUSSBAUMER and R. E. STENCEL I Symbiotic Stars 203
E. BOHM-VITENSE and M. QUERCI I Intrinsically Variable Stars 223
c. JORDAN and J. L. LINSKY 1 Chromospheres and Transition Regions 259
C. L. IMHOFF and I. APPENZELLER I Pre-Main Sequence Stars 295
A. K. DUPREE and D. REIMERS I Mass Loss from Cool Stars 321
G. VAUCLAIR and J. LIEBERT I The End Stage of Stellar Evolution:
White Dwarfs, Hot Subdwarfs and Nuclei of Planetary Nebulae 355
S. STARRFIELD and M. A. J. SNIJDERS I Galactic Novae 377
F. A. C6RDOVA and I. D. HOWARTH I Accretion onto Compact Stars
in Binary Systems 395
G. E. McCLUSKEY, Jr. and J. SAHADE !Interacting Binaries 427
M. HACK and D. STICKLAND 1 Atmospheric Eclipses by Supergiants in
Binary Systems 445
PART IV I THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM AND NEBULAE
IN THE MILKY WAY AND MAGELLANIC
CLOUDS %5
F. C. BRUHWEILER and A. VIDAL-MADJAR I The Interstellar Medium
near the Sun 467
Vl TABLE OF CONTENTS
K. S. DE BOER, M. A. JURA, and J. M. SHULL I Diffuse and Dark
Clouds in the Interstellar Medium 485
J. s. MATHIS I Interstellar Dust and Extinction 517
E. B. JENKINS I Observations of Absorption Lines from Highly Ionized
Atoms 531
w. P. BLAIR and N. PANAGIAISupernovaeandTheirRernnants 549
R. J. DUFOUR I Hn Regions 577
J. KOPPEN and L. H. ALLER I Planetary Nebulae 589
PART VI GALAXIES AND COSMOLOGY 603
J. B. HUTCHINGS, J. LEQUEUX, and B. WOLF I Stars and HII Regions
in Nearby Galaxies 605
D. KUNTH and D. WEEDMAN I Starbust Galaxies 623
V. CASTELLANI and A. CASSATELLA I Globular Clusters 637
M. A. MALKAN, D. ALLOIN, and S. SHORE I Active Galactic Nuclei 655
P. M. GONDHALEKAR and G. FERLAND I Quasars 671
J. N. BREGMAN, L. MARASCHI, and C. M. URRY IBlazars 685
J. BERGERON, B. SAVAGE, and R. F. GREEN I Quasar Absorption
Lines and Galaxy Halos 703
PART VI I HOW TO USE IUE DATA 727
A. W. HARRIS and G. SONNEBORN I How to Use IUE Data 729
PART VII I THE FUTURE 751
F. D. MACCHETTO and R. C. HENRY I The Role of IUE in the Hubble
Space Telescope Era 753
D. GIARETTA, J. M. MEAD, and P. BENVENUTI I Mining the IUE
Archive 759
N arne Index 771
~~~ m
Line Index 783
Starindex 785
PREFACE
This book was conceived to commemorate the continuing success of the guest
observer program for the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite
observatory. It is also hoped that this volume will serve as a useful tutorial for
those pursuing research in related fields with future space observatories. As the
IUE has been the product of the three-way collaboration between the U.S.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space
Agency (ESA) and the British Engineering and Research Council (SERC), so is
this book the fruit of the collaboration of the American and European participants
in the IUE. As such, it is a testimony to timely international cooperation and
sharing of resources that open up new possibilities.
The IUE spacecraft was launched on the 26th of January in 1978 into a
geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean. The scientific operations of the
IUE are performed for 16 hours a day from Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.A, and for 8 hours a day from ESA Villafranca Satellite
Tracking Station near Madrid, Spain.
The opportunities for research with the IUE have been open to all astronomers
of the world; indeed, scientists from all five continents have participated in
research using this satellite observatory. Guest observers come to either of the two
sites and obtain their observations in real-time assisted by resident astronomers
and telescope operators. The total number of guest observers at Goddard should
come to 755 individuals by the end of the 9th guest observer year ending on 31
May 1987, and that at Villafranca 720. This means that the IUE has been used
for research by a very substantial fraction of all astronomers engaged in research,
particularly in the U.S. and Europe.
The astronomical sources studied with the IUE range from solar system objects
to external galaxies and quasars. The brightest object observed was Venus at -4th
magnitude, and the faintest the central star of a planetary nebula at 20th
magnitude. The results have had a profound influence on a large number of
subdisciplines. The choice of themes for the chapters in this book was not
altogether simple but the subjects chosen are, in the view of the editorial
committee, representative of the outstanding research performed with the IUE.
Perhaps, the most important and difficult-to-judge criterion for a scientific
program is the quality of the research performed. Some three dozen chapters in
this book address that point eloquently. Another criterion is its productivity in
terms of refereed papers published. At the end of 1985 the articles published in
principal refereed journals using IUE observations had come to 1133. In this
sense, as some guest observers have commented, the IUE has been the most
productive telescope in the solar system over the past several years.
I should like to acknowledge the invaluable contributions, which have been made
to the successful construction and operations of the IUE, by a large number of
American and European scientists and engineers. Regrettably, it is not practical to
cite all their names individually in these pages.
Y. Kondo (ed.), Scientific Accomplishments of the IUE, pp. vii.
© 1987 by D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Vlll PREFACE
I wish to express my sincere thanks to my fellow editors, W. Wamsteker, A.
Boggess, M. Grewing, C. de Jager, A. L. Lane, J. L. Linsky, and R. Wilson. Willem
Wamsteker served as chief coordinator for our European colleagues and deserves a
special recognition. Jeff Linsky's contribution was invaluable in starting this project.
YOJI KONDO
Editor in Chief
FOREWORD
The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) has been observing astronomical
spectra almost continually since its launch into a geosynchronous orbit on January
26, 1978, and has obtained 50 000 consecutive astronomical exposures by mid-
1986. After nine years of successful operation of this satellite, a joint effort of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (U.S.A.) and the European Space
Agency, a survey of the scientific results obtained seems highly appropriate and is
presented in this book.
The primary characteristic of the IUE which has made possible its prodigious
scientific output is its capability for measuring a very wide region of the spectrum
in a single exposure, with its two spectrographs covering the ranges 1150 to
1950 A and 1900 to 3200 A. With SEC Vidicons as the detectors, quantitative
measures of the full spectrum within either of these regions are obtained either at
high resolution (0.1 to 0.3 A) or low (6 to 7 A). The high observing efficiency
possible in geosynchronous orbit also contributes to the high IUE data rate.
An area of scientific research which has been particularly well matched to the
IUE capabilities is that of stellar atmospheres, particularly the high-excitation
phenomena which can most readily be detected with ultraviolet observations. A
number of factors contribute to this excellent match of IUE characteristics with
the requirements of stellar research. Among these are the rich stellar spectra at
ultraviolet wavelengths, the availability of numerous relatively bright stars with
interesting and complex phenomena occurring in their atmospheres, and the
adequacy for most stellar programs of IUE's spectroscopic resolving power of 104•
Consequently, of the 31 articles in this book dealing with scientific results, 13 of
these are devoted to stellar atmospheres, with many pioneering results obtained.
In the field of external galaxies and quasars the IUE has provided an exciting
introduction to the results obtainable from ultraviolet studies. Since such systems
have low radiation fluxes at the Earth, and the IUE clear aperture is only 0.45 m
in diameter, most of the spectra observed in this research have been of low
resolution with the echelle replaced by a mirror and the spectra produced by the
predisperser alone. The 7 papers devoted to this topic describe a number of
fascinating results, and whet one's appetite for the data anticipated from the
Hubble Space Telescope, with its primary mirror 28 times larger in area.
Interstellar matter studies are also represented here, with 7 papers devoted to
this topic. For observations of interstellar absorption lines the IUE is somewhat
handicapped in that its resolving power and photometric accuracy are not quite
high enough for ready observation of the weaker features, which tend to be
unsaturated and hence simple to interpret. However, for emission-line studies and
for a number of special absorption-line programs IUE results have made signifi-
cant contributions to our understanding of the interstellar gas.
The volume is rounded out with three chapters of solar system studies and
several others on the past and the future and on methods for using IUE data. In
fact, use of the extensive data in the IUE archives is likely to support research for
some years, having increased the number of IUE-based papers well above the 1200
Y. Kondo (ed.), Scientific Accomplishments of the IUE, pp. ix-x.
© 1987 by D. Reidel Publishing Company.