Search Publications
Correction of instrument temperature dependence of detector responsivity for measurements of comet 67P acquired by Rosetta's Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer, Mapping channel (VIRTIS-M)
D'Aversa, E.; Kappel, D.; Erard, S. +8 more
The Mapping channel of the Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS-M) aboard Rosetta acquired many hyperspectral images of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (hereafter 67P). The VIS channel detector responsivity was dependent on the VIS detector temperature (TVIS). This affects the absolute values of the measured spectra (for a TVI…
Robust diffraction-limited near-infrared-to-near-ultraviolet wide-field imaging from stratospheric balloon-borne platforms—Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope performance
Jauzac, Mathilde; Tam, Sut-Ieng; Benton, Steven J. +26 more
At a fraction of the total cost of an equivalent orbital mission, scientific balloon-borne platforms, operating above 99.7% of the Earth's atmosphere, offer attractive, competitive, and effective observational capabilities—namely, space-like seeing, transmission, and backgrounds—which are well suited for modern astronomy and cosmology. The Super-p…
Simple, compact, high-resolution monochromatic x-ray source for characterization of x-ray calorimeter arrays
Eckart, M. E.; Kilbourne, C. A.; Leutenegger, M. A. +6 more
X-ray calorimeters routinely achieve very high spectral resolution, typically a few eV full width at half maximum (FWHM). Measurements of calorimeter line shapes are usually dominated by the natural linewidth of most laboratory calibration sources. This compounds the data acquisition time necessary to statistically sample the instrumental line bro…
INFRA-ICE: An ultra-high vacuum experimental station for laboratory astrochemistry
Santoro, Gonzalo; Sobrado, Jesús. M.; Tajuelo-Castilla, Guillermo +7 more
Laboratory astrochemistry aims at simulating, in the laboratory, some of the chemical and physical processes that operate in different regions of the universe. Amongst the diverse astrochemical problems that can be addressed in the laboratory, the evolution of cosmic dust grains in different regions of the interstellar medium (ISM) and its role in…
SIMBIO-SYS/STC stereo camera calibration: Geometrical distortion
Da Deppo, Vania; Slemer, Alessandra; Amoroso, Marilena +10 more
The STereo imaging Channel (STC) is the first push-frame stereo camera on board an European Space Agency (ESA) satellite, i.e., the ESA-Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency mission BepiColombo. It was launched in October 2018, and it will reach its target, Mercury, in 2025. The STC main aim is to provide the global three-dimensional reconstruction o…
Non-linear quantization error reduction for the temperature measurement subsystem on-board LISA Pathfinder
Sanjuan, J.; Nofrarias, M.
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Pathfinder is a mission to test the technology enabling gravitational wave detection in space and to demonstrate that sub-femto-g free fall levels are possible. To do so, the distance between two free falling test masses is measured to unprecedented sensitivity by means of laser interferometry. Temperature…
CRDS with a VECSEL for broad-band high sensitivity spectroscopy in the 2.3 µm window
Campargue, A.; Vasilchenko, S.; Mondelain, D. +9 more
The integration of an industry ready packaged Sb-based Vertical-External-Cavity Surface-Emitting-Laser (VECSEL) into a Cavity Ring Down Spectrometer (CRDS) is presented. The instrument operates in the important 2.3 µm atmospheric transparency window and provides a high sensitivity (minimum detectable absorption of 9 × 10-11 cm
Calibration of the microcalorimeter spectrometer on-board the Hitomi (Astro-H) observatory (invited)
de Vries, C. P.; Tsujimoto, M.; Ishisaki, Y. +21 more
The Hitomi Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) was a pioneering non-dispersive imaging x-ray spectrometer with 5 eV FWHM energy resolution, consisting of an array of 36 silicon-thermistor microcalorimeters at the focus of a high-throughput soft x-ray telescope. The instrument enabled astrophysical plasma diagnostics in the 0.3-12 keV band. We introduce …
On-ground characterization of Rosetta/VIRTIS-M. I. Spectral and geometrical calibrations
Piccioni, G.; Capaccioni, F.; Coradini, A. +5 more
The complete characterization of complex imaging spectrometers, such as VIRTIS-M (visual infrared thermal imaging spectrometer) aboard the Rosetta mission, requires a detailed and prolonged activity starting with the instrument integration and continuing during the entire operational life of the experiment. In this article we report the main exper…
On-ground characterization of Rosetta/VIRTIS-M. II. Spatial and radiometric calibrations
Piccioni, G.; Capaccioni, F.; Coradini, A. +5 more
After having considered the spectral and geometrical performances of the Rosetta/VIRTIS-M experiment, we complete here the analysis by evaluating quantitatively the flat-field and radiometric responses. The purpose of this work is to retrieve the flat-field matrix necessary to homogenize the focal plane response. Moreover, the most important resul…