Astronomical instrumentation

Abstract:

Spectra of nuclei in the active galaxies NGC 1614, 7469 and 1275 are presented. The Ne II fine structure line and the 11.25 micron feature are observed in a NGC 7469 Seyfert nucleus and the high luminosity emission-line nucleus of NGC 1614. Observations are found to be consistent with no large optical extinction, although the 11.25 and 8.65 micron emission features make doubtful quantitative estimates of extinction based on the 10 micron minimum. Silicate absorption interpretation of the 10 micron minimum for M82 and NGC 1614 requires massive visual extinction, while the spectrum of NGC 7469 indicates no large internal extinction. Such features in the type 1 Seyfert NGC 7469 and 1614 indicate a dust-emission mechanism, while the featureless spectrum of NGC 1275 may arise from mechanisms such as synchrotron radiation, greybody thermal emission or self-absorbed silicate emission.

Abstract:

8-13 μm spectrophotometry of HD 97048 has been obtained, following the discovery of a new narrow emission feature at 3.5 μm by Blades \amp Whittet. The spectrum shows the familiar but unidentified emission feature at 11.25 μm superimposed on a hot grey continuum. The failure to detect other emission structure in this window rules out polyoxymethylene as the source of the 3.5 μm feature. The relationship with the associated reflection nebula is discussed.

Abstract:

Infrared spectroscopic observations have been made with sufficient spatial resolution to separate some of the members of the BNKL infrared complex in the Orion Nebula; 8-13 micron spectra of BN, IRc2 and IRc4 together with 3-4 micron spectra of BN and IRc2 are presented. These spectra show significantly more extinction attributed to water ice to IRc2 than to BN, and the extinction attributed to silicate grains also increase in the sequence BN, IRc2 and IRc4. The silicate absorption feature observed in the case of IRc4 has a significantly different shape from that observed in most heavily obscured infrared sources, but this is shown to be a natural consequence of a large amount of absorbing material being close to the source of luminosity. These observations are interpreted in terms of independent sources of comparable luminosity situated progressively deeper within the Orion molecular cloud.