0 M ay 2 00 0 ALFA & 3 D : integral field spectroscopy with adaptive optics

One of the most important techniques for astrophysics with adaptive optics is the ability to do spectroscopy at diffraction limited scales. The extreme difficulty of positioning a faint target accurately on a very narrow slit can be avoided by using an integral field unit, which provides the added benefit of full spatial coverage. During 1998, working with ALFA and the 3D integral field spectrometer, we demonstrated the validity of this technique by extracting and distinguishing spectra from binary stars separated by only 0.26. The combination of ALFA &3D is also ideally suited to imaging distant galaxies or the nuclei of nearby ones, as its field of view can be changed between 1.2×1.2 and 4×4, depending on the pixel scale chosen. In this contribution we present new results both on galactic targets, namely young stellar objects, as well as extra-galactic objects including a Seyfert and a starburst nucleus.

[1]  C. Koresko,et al.  A Third Star in the T Tauri System , 2000, The Astrophysical journal.

[2]  J. Solf,et al.  A Deep Long-Slit Spectroscopic Study of the Two Bipolar Outflows from the T Tauri Binary System , 1999 .

[3]  F. Roddier,et al.  Four-Year Observations of T Tauri With Adaptive Optics , 1999 .

[4]  S. Hippler,et al.  First Observational Results from ALFA with Natural and Laser Guide Stars , 1998, astro-ph/9810157.

[5]  Roberto Maiolino,et al.  Aperture interchange module (AIM) diffraction-limited NIR spectroscopy with 3D and ALFA , 1998, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.

[6]  Andreas Quirrenbach,et al.  The Nuclear Stellar Core, the Hot Dust Source, and the Location of the Nucleus of NGC 1068 , 1997 .

[7]  California Institute of Technology,et al.  Subarcsecond Imaging at 267 GHz of a Young Binary System: Detection of a Dust Disk of Radius Less than 70 AU around T Tauri N , 1997, astro-ph/9709288.

[8]  N. Thatte,et al.  3D: The next generation near-infrared imaging spectrometer , 1996 .

[9]  J. Carlstrom,et al.  Infrared CO Emission from Young Stars: Accretion Disks and Neutral Winds , 1995 .

[10]  E. F. Dishoeck,et al.  The spatial distribution of excited H_2 in T Tau: a molecular outflow in a young binary system , 1994 .

[11]  C. Aspin,et al.  The remarkable pre-main sequence object V 1318 Cygni , 1994 .

[12]  R. Mathieu.  Pre-Main-Sequence Binary Stars , 1994 .

[13]  A. Sternberg,et al.  NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPIC IMAGING OF THE CIRCUMNUCLEAR ENVIRONMENT OF NGC 1068 , 1994 .

[14]  G. Neugebauer,et al.  Diffraction limited infrared images of the binary star T Tauri , 1991 .

[15]  R. Griffiths,et al.  Search for Starbursts among X-Ray-Selected Galaxies , 1991 .

[16]  J. Carr.  Near-infrared CO emission in young stellar objects , 1989 .

[17]  Luis Carrasco,et al.  Infrared companions to T Tauri stars , 1988 .

[18]  J. Miller,et al.  Spectropolarimetry and the nature of NGC 1068 , 1985 .

[19]  H. M. Dyck,et al.  Discovery of an infrared companion to T Tauri , 1982 .

[20]  Martin G. Cohen,et al.  Observational studies of pre-main-sequence evolution. , 1979 .

[21]  I. Gatley,et al.  Molecular hydrogen emission from T Tauri stars. , 1978 .