| Astrophysical Masers | Star Formation | Space Projects |

SPECTROSCOPIC SPACE PROJECTS


ODIN (Swedish-French-Canadian-Finnish Sub-millimeter Satellite)

The main goal of the sub-millimeter satellite ODIN is to search for the thermal water line (at 557 GHz) in a variety of astronomical objects. T. Liljeström is a lead scientist/chair person of two astronomical teams:

  • Photon dominated regions and cloud edges
  • High-latitude clouds
and has a co-investigator status in the following teams:
  • Galactic centre
  • Giant molecular clouds
  • Star formation
  • Outflows
  • Absorption lines
In the programme of photon dominated regions (PDRs) the submillimeter satellite ODIN will observe the best studied dense interface regions of ionized HII regions, reflection nebulae, low-density UV PDRs, as well as X-ray PDRs, in order to get a better understanding of the physical and chemical effects of the incident radiation flux on PDRs. The ODIN stallite will also probe which role H2O and O2 have in the overall oxygen abundance and ion chemistry.
Orion is a key target for the submillimeter satellite ODIN. The Orion Nebula marks the location of one of the highest concentrations of young stars in the sky. It is the best studied star-forming region in the sky, and continues to yield new insights as more technically advanced telescopes equipped with new frequency ranges are focused on it.
The bright nebula M16 (or Eagle nebula) is located 7000 light years from Earth (some 3 degrees away from the bright star Altair). Massive young stars illuminate and pump out huge amounts of UV radiation, which heats the nebula through the photoelectric effect. Three darker pillars in the center of the nebula are concentrations of dust and gas and have been eroded by the UV radiation. Only the densest parts of the cloud, which are well shielded from UV through dust particles have survived. Hubble Space telescope has zoomed on these dust pillars (see the enlargement below). The left pillar is three light years long. The turquoise background is artificially colored in order to better show the bright rims of the pillars.
The ODIN research team of photodominated regions will observe many bright interaction zones between UV radiation and dense cloud material. Especially we will search for thermal water vapor, which is an efficient coolant of warm gas and which should be enhanced in warm photodominated regions like the ones shown in these Figures.


| Astrophysical Masers | Star Formation | Space Projects |

URL: http://kurp-www.hut.fi/spectroscopy/space-projects.shtml
Monday, 24-Oct-2011 13:31:20 EEST

For more information contact:
tarja.liljestrom@hut.fi
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