A&A: Special Feature: Science with AKARI

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A&A: Special Feature: Science with AKARI

Post by bystander » Mon May 03, 2010 3:59 pm

Special Feature: Science with AKARI (Free access)
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 514 (03 May 2010)
Press Release
This week, Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing a special feature devoted to the new results obtained with the infrared satellite AKARI, a JAXA project with the participation of ESA. It includes 17 articles dealing with various subjects. Some papers are based on the AKARI all-sky survey, which has just been released. Others are dedicated to pointed observations of many astronomical targets from solar system bodies to distant galaxies. (Free access)

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ESA: AKARI Produces Two New Infrared All-Sky Catalogues

Post by bystander » Tue May 04, 2010 3:20 am

AKARI Produces Two New Infrared All-Sky Catalogues
ESA Science & Technology - 31 March 2010
Two new infrared catalogues, containing more than 1.3 million celestial sources, are made public today. The AKARI All-Sky Catalogues, based on the first all-sky infrared survey in more than a quarter of a century, will provide important new data for a wide range of studies that cover topics ranging from the properties of nearby stars, to the formation of planetary systems, and the star formation history of the distant Universe.

All-sky surveys are an essential tool for astronomers. The large numbers of objects that are detected in these surveys lend themselves to classification and statistical analyses of celestial bodies. The astronomical census that results from a multi-wavelength, all-sky survey provides a firm framework on which to build a deeper understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies, stars and planetary systems. For more than 25 years astronomers have relied on the IRAS all-sky atlas, based on observations made in 1983 with the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite, to provide this type of information at infrared wavelengths. Today, the scientific community has an important new tool for this work: the AKARI all-sky catalogues.

AKARI, the first Japanese infrared astronomical satellite, was launched in February 2006 and surveyed the entire sky between May 2006 and August 2007. The two catalogues that are released publicly today contain the positions and flux values (at 6 wavelengths) for more than 1.3 million celestial sources detected by two instruments carried by AKARI: the Infrared Camera (IRC) detected ~870,000 objects in two bands (9 and 18 micrometres), and the Far-Infrared Surveyor (FIS, sensitive to 65, 90, 140, and 160 micrometres) detected ~430,000 celestial sources.

These new catalogues, the AKARI-IRC Point Source Catalogue and the AKARI-FIS Bright Source Catalogue, are a significant improvement upon the previous all-sky infrared survey that was produced with IRAS. AKARI can pinpoint the location of a star to an accuracy of arcseconds (compared to arcminutes with IRAS), and it is about 10 times more sensitive (at 18 micrometres) than IRAS. These improvements will have a significant impact on the science that can be performed with these all-sky surveys.
Image
  • This AKARI view of the sky shows infrared sources at 9 micrometres in blue, at 18 micrometres in green, and at 90 micrometres in red. The image is arranged with the Galactic Centre in the middle, and the plane of the Galaxy running horizontally across the map. Emission from the photospheres of stars dominates the 9 micrometres catalogue, where the galactic disc and nuclear bulge are clearly visible, whereas dust and star formation in the disc of our Galaxy become are more prominent at 90 micrometres. Away from the Galactic Plane, many extragalactic objects are detected, tracing galaxy evolution and star formation in the distant Universe. (JAXA/AKARI)
AKARI Point Source Catalogues Public Release
DARTS AKARI (ASTRO-F) Catalogue Archive Server

AKARI Home Page at JAXA Main web site
AKARI Home Page at ISAS Main web site
AKARI European User Support Page at ESAC/ESA

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