Search results for "light"
showing 10 items of 3575 documents
The Solar Mass Ejection Imager and Its Heliospheric Imaging Legacy
2013
The Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) was the first of a new class of helio- spheric and astronomical white-light imager. A heliospheric imager operates in a fashion similar to coronagraphs, in that it observes solar photospheric white light that has been Thomson scattered by free electrons in the solar wind plasma. Compared with traditional
First Direct Observation of the Interaction between a Comet and a Coronal Mass Ejection Leading to a Complete Plasma Tail Disconnection
2007
This a discovery report of the first direct imaging of the interaction a comet with a coronal mass ejection (CME) in the inner heliosphere with high temporal and spatial resolution. The observations were obtained by the Sun-Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) Heliospheric Imager-1 (HI-1) aboard the STEREO mission. They reveal the extent of the plasma tail of comet 2P/Encke to unprecedented lengths and allow us to examine the mechanism behind a spectacular tail disconnection event. Our preliminary analysis suggests that the disconnection is driven by magnetic reconnection between the magnetic field entrained in the CME and the interplanetary field draped around t…
The Ultra-Fast Flash Observatory's space GRB mission and science
2011
AbstractThe Ultra-Fast Flash Observatory (UFFO) is a space mission to detect the early moments of an explosion from Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), thus enhancing our understanding of the GRB mechanism. It consists of the UFFO Burst & Trigger telescope (UBAT) for the recognition of GRB positions using hard X-ray from GRBs. It also contains the Slewing Mirror Telescope (SMT) for the fast detection of UV-optical photons from GRBs. It is designed to begin the UV-optical observations in less than a few seconds after the trigger. The UBAT is based on a coded-mask X-ray camera with a wide field of view (FOV) and is composed of the coded mask, a hopper and a detector module. The SMT has a fast rotata…
Ultra-Fast Flash Observatory: Fast Response Space Missions for Early Time Phase of Gamma Ray Bursts
2013
One of the unexplored domains in the study of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is the early time phase of the optical light curve. We have proposed Ultra-Fast Flash Observatory (UFFO) to address this question through extraordinary opportunities presented by a series of small space missions. The UFFO is equipped with a fast-response Slewing Mirror Telescope that uses a rapidly moving mirror or mirror array to redirect the optical beam rather than slewing the entire spacecraft or telescope to aim the optical instrument at the GRB position. The UFFO will probe the early optical rise of GRBs with sub-second response, for the first time, opening a completely new frontier in GRB and transient studies. Its…
Wavelength-multiplexed computational temporal ghost imaging
2017
Ghost imaging is a novel imaging technique based on correlation measurements between a structured illumination pattern (the reference) and the total intensity transmitted or reflected by an object [1]. The reference illumination patterns may be either randomly generated by a spatially incoherent light source, or pre-programmed e.g. with a spatial light modulator. Light transmitted (or reflected) by the object is measured by a single-pixel “bucket” detector with null spatial resolution. A unique feature associated with ghost imaging is that (i) neither the bucket detector nor the reference measurement caries enough information to retrieve the object shape and (ii) it is insensitive to distor…
Second order diffractive optical elements in a spatial light modulator with large phase dynamic range
2013
International audience; A study of the diffraction efficiency of a spatial light modulator with a large dynamic phase range is reported. We use a phase-only device that reaches 4π phase modulation depth for the wavelength of 454 nm. This allows operating phase-only diffractive optical elements in the second harmonic diffraction order, instead of in the usual first diffraction order. This type of implementation shows advantages in terms of resolution and diffraction efficiency. Experimental results are reported for blazed diffractive gratings and diffractive lenses.
Time-multiplexed chromatic-controlled axial diffractive optical elements
2010
Programmable diffractive optical elements DOEs with axial response have many interesting applications, including diffractive lenses, axicons, and optical tweezers. In all these cases, it is essential to properly select the modulation configuration of the spatial light modulator SLM where the DOE is displayed, in order to avoid the undiffracted zero order component that appears on axis and overlaps the desired axial response. However, in general, the chromatic dispersion in liquid crystal SLMs prevents the cancellation of the zero order for a broadband light source, thus limiting the possibilities for polychromatic program- mable axial DOEs. We operate a ferroelectric liquid crystal on silic…
Long Term Radio Monitoring of SN 1993J
2007
We present our observations of the radio emission from supernova (SN) 1993J, in M 81 (NGC 3031), made with the VLA, from 90 to 0.7 cm, as well as numerous measurements from other telescopes. The combined data set constitutes probably the most detailed set of measurements ever established for any SN outside of the Local Group in any wavelength range. Only SN 1987A in the LMC has been the subject of such an intensive observational program. The radio emission evolves regularly in both time and frequency, and the usual interpretation in terms of shock interaction with a circumstellar medium (CSM) formed by a pre-SN stellar wind describes the observations rather well considering the complexity o…
GRB 050410 and GRB 050412: are they really dark gamma-ray bursts?
2007
We present a detailed analysis of the prompt and afterglow emission of GRB 050410 and GRB 050412 detected by Swift for which no optical counterpart was observed. The 15-150 keV energy distribution of the GRB 050410 prompt emission shows a peak energy at 53 keV. The XRT light curve of this GRB decays as a power law with a slope of alpha=1.06+/-0.04. The spectrum is well reproduced by an absorbed power law with a spectral index Gamma_x=2.4+/-0.4 and a low energy absorption N_H=4(+3;-2)x10^21 cm^(-2) which is higher than the Galactic value. The 15-150 keV prompt emission in GRB 050412 is modelled with a hard (Gamma=0.7+/-0.2) power law. The XRT light curve follows a broken power law with the f…
Measurement of the4He-D2 mass difference
1990
A Penning ion trap spectrometer has been used to measure the modified cyclotron frequencies of trapped4He+ and D 2 + ions. The resonances were detected by a time of flight method after ejection of the ions from the trap. We obtain a mass differenceΔm (D2-4He) = 25600331(5)·10−9 amu in acordance with published values but with a reduced uncertainty.