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Register a new user18-Months Operation of Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope: A Highly Stable Photometric Performance
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We here report the photometric performance of Lunar-based Ultraviolet telescope (LUT), the first robotic telescope working on the Moon, for its 18-months operation. In total, 17 IUE standards have been observed in 51 runs until June 2015, which returns a highly stable photometric performance during the past 18 months (i.e., no evolution of photometric performance with time). The magnitude zero point is determined to be $17.53pm0.05$ mag, which is not only highly consistent with the results based on its first 6-months operation, but also independent on the spectral type of the standard from which the magnitude zero point is determined. The implications of this stable performance is discussed, and is useful for next generation lunar-based astronomical observations.
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We reported the photometric calibration of Lunar-based Ultraviolet telescope (LUT), the first robotic astronomical telescope working on the lunar surface, for its first six months of operation on the lunar surface. Two spectral datasets (set A and B) from near-ultraviolet (NUV) to optical band were constructed for 44 International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) standards, because of the LUTs relatively wide wavelength coverage. Set A were obtained by extrapolating the IUE NUV spectra ($lambda<3200AA$) to optical band basing upon the theoretical spectra of stellar atmosphere models. Set B were exactly the theoretical spectra from 2000AA to 8000AA extracted from the same model grid. In total, seven standards have been observed in 15 observational runs until May 2014. The calibration results show that the photometric performance of LUT is highly stable in its first six months of operation. The magnitude zero points obtained from the two spectral datasets are also consistent with each other, i.e., $mathrm{zp=17.54pm0.09}$mag (set A) and $mathrm{zp=17.52pm0.07}$mag (set B).
The Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary instrument for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) mission, is an imaging, wide field-of-view, high-energy gamma-ray telescope, covering the energy range from 30 MeV to more than 300 GeV. We describe the performance of the instrument at the 10-year milestone. LAT performance remains well within the specifications defined during the planning phase, validating the design choices and supporting the compelling case to extend the duration of the Fermi mission. The details provided here will be useful when designing the next generation of high-energy gamma-ray observatories.
The content of $mathrm{OH/H_2O}$ molecules in the tenuous exosphere of the Moon is still an open issue at present. We here report an unprecedented upper limit of the content of the OH radicals, which is obtained from the in-situ measurements carried out rm by the Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope, a payload of Chinese Change-3 mission. By analyzing the diffuse background in the images taken by the telescope, the column density and surface concentration of the OH radicals are inferred to be $<10^{11} mathrm{cm^{-2}}$ and $<10^{4} mathrm{cm^{-3}}$ (by assuming a hydrostatic equilibrium with a scale height of 100km), respectively, by assuming that the recorded background is fully contributed by their resonance fluorescence emission. The resulted concentration is lower than the previously reported value by about two orders of magnitude, and is close to the prediction of the sputtering model. In addition, the same measurements and method allow us to derive a surface concentration of $<10^{2} mathrm{cm^{-3}}$ for the neutral magnesium, which is lower than the previously reported upper limit by about two orders of magnitude. These results are the best known of the OH (MgI) content in the lunar exosphere to date.
Time-series photometry from space in the ultraviolet can be presently done with only a few platforms, none of which is able to provide wide-field long-term high-cadence photometry. We present a concept of UVSat, a twin space telescope which will be capable to perform this kind of photometry, filling an observational niche. The satellite will host two telescopes, one for observations in the ultraviolet, the other for observations in the optical band. We also briefly show what science can be done with UVSat.
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next-generation observatory in the field of very-high-energy (20 GeV to 300 TeV) gamma-ray astroparticle physics. Classically, data analysis in the field maximizes sensitivity by applying quality cuts on the data acquired. These cuts, optimized using Monte Carlo simulations, select higher quality events from the initial dataset. Subsequent steps of the analysis typically use the surviving events to calculate one set of instrument response functions (IRFs). An alternative approach is the use of event types, as implemented in experiments such as the Fermi-LAT. In this approach, events are divided into sub-samples based on their reconstruction quality, and a set of IRFs is calculated for each sub-sample. The sub-samples are then combined in a joint analysis, treating them as independent observations. This leads to an improvement in performance parameters such as sensitivity, angular and energy resolution. Data loss is reduced since lower quality events are included in the analysis as well, rather than discarded. In this study, machine learning methods will be used to classify events according to their expected angular reconstruction quality. We will report the impact on CTA high-level performance when applying such an event-type classification, compared to the classical procedure.
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