Scientific results with NIRSPEC on the Keck II Telescope

Ian S. McLean

doi:10.1117/12.390144

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29 June 2000 Scientific results with NIRSPEC on the Keck II Telescope

Ian S. McLean

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Proceedings Volume 4005, Discoveries and Research Prospects from 8- to 10-Meter-Class Telescopes; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.390144
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2000, Munich, Germany

Abstract

This invited paper reviews the first scientific results to emerge from NIRSPEC, a new near-IR cryogenic spectrograph for the Keck II 10-meter telescope. In its lowest resolution mode, NIRSPEC is sufficiently sensitive for deep extra- galactic work, as illustrated by observations of a gravitational lense galaxy at a redshift of z equals 2.7. This resolution also provides a powerful tool for a spectroscopic survey of brown dwarfs. The power of NIRSPEC's high- resolution echelle mode is illustrated with studies of star- forming regions, interacting galaxies and the Galactic Center. As well as solar system bodies such as comets and the outer planets. Prospects for use of NIRSPEC with the Keck adaptive optics system are also discussed. NIRSPEC demonstrates that, withe availability of large-format, low- noise array detectors, IR astronomy is now capable of many challenging applications in spectroscopy.

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Ian S. McLean "Scientific results with NIRSPEC on the Keck II Telescope", Proc. SPIE 4005, Discoveries and Research Prospects from 8- to 10-Meter-Class Telescopes, (29 June 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.390144

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