Jr. Graham et al., THE PERFORMANCE AND SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE FOR AN INFRARED IMAGING FOURIER-TRANSFORM SPECTROGRAPH ON A LARGE SPACE TELESCOPE, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 110(752), 1998, pp. 1205-1215
Citations number
53
Categorie Soggetti
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Journal title
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
We describe a concept for an imaging spectrograph for a large orbiting
observatory such as NASA's proposed Next Generation Space Telescope (
NGST) based on an imaging Fourier transform spectrograph (IFTS). An IF
TS has several important advantages that make it an ideal instrument t
o pursue the scientific objectives of NGST. We review the operation of
an IFTS and make a quantitative evaluation of the signal-to-noise per
formance of such an instrument in the context of NGST. We consider the
relationship between pixel size, spectral resolution, and diameter of
the beam splitter for imaging and nonimaging Fourier transform spectr
ographs and give the condition required to maintain spectral modulatio
n efficiency over the entire field of view. We give examples of scient
ific programs that could be performed with this facility.