Brazilian astronomy and radio-astronomy

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Brazilian astronomy and radio-astronomy

• Jacques Lépine
• University of São Paulo

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Brazilian Astronomical Society (SAB)

• Founded in 1974
• 520 members (320 PhDs)
• Annual Meetings attended by aprox. 300
  participants
• www.sab-astro.org.br

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Main Astronomy Centers

• CRAAM - Mackenzie University, São Paulo
• Federal University of Minas Gerais State (Belo
  Horizonte)
• Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul State
  (Porto Alegre)
• Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State (Rio
  de Janeiro)
• Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte State
  (Natal)
• IAG/USP - Institute for Astronomy, Geophysics and
  Atmospheric Sciences, at the University of São
  Paulo (São Paulo)
• INPE - National Institute for Space Research, São
  José dos Campos, São Paulo State
• LNA - National Laboratory of Astrophysics,
  Itajubá, Minas Gerais State
• ON Nacional Observatory (Rio de Janeiro)

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Achievements

• The Brazilian relative participation in the
  International Astronomical Community has
  increased significantly.
• In the last years Brazil has been also forming
  PhD astronomers from Argentina, Chile, Colombia,
  Peru, Uruguay
• Hosting for a few years post-doctoral fellows
  from all over the world, including Europe and
  North America.
• many IAU symposia and other meetings have been
  organized. Next IAU general Assembly in Rio
  2009.

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Funding Agencies

• Research in Brazil is mainly supported by
• CNPq federal agency part of the Ministry of
  Science and Technololy.
• Research grants and Master, PhD, and
  post-doctoral fellowships
• FINEP US 550 Mi in 2005
• FNDCT US 350 Mi in 2005
• FAPESP US 400 Mi annually in grants and
  fellowships (1 of total state budget, handled by
  committees of scientists)
• other FAPs

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Projetcs

• Recently Brazil entered in a new phase, thanks
  mostly to its participation in the Gemini (US 5
  Mi) and SOAR (US 12 Mi) projects.
• Gravitational Waves Telescope Mário Schemberg
• Masco X-ray Telescope
• MIRAX first Brazilian satellite
• Pierre Auger Observatory
• CoRoT satellite (France)

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Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research -
SOAR

• SOAR is a 4.1 m optical telescope
• At Cerro Pachon, in Chile
• excellent image quality (0.22 arcseconds), fast
  slewing and planned to have up to nine
  instruments mounted ready for use

• Consortium of Brazilian Ministry of Science,
  NOAO, University of North Carolina, Michigan
  State University.
• Brazil 30 of observing time
• Dedicated in April 2004.
• Cost US 12 Mi (US10 Mi from CNPq and US 2 Mi
  from FAPESP)

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Schemberg

• Gravitational Wave Telescope
• Solid sphere of 65 cm diameter and weighing 1150
  kg
• Collaboration between INPE and USP
• Cost US 0.8 Mi (4K) 0.15 (0.1K)

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MASCO

• X-ray telescope
• Study gamma- and X-ray emitting objects such as
• X-ray pulsars
• Cataclismic variable stars
• Galactic center objects
• Launched by balloons
• INPE

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Monitor e Imageador de Raios-X MIRAX

• First Brazilian astronomical satellite project
• X-ray satellite 2-200 keV (spectral resolution
  1.2 keV _at_ 6 keV, lt 5 keV _at_ 60 keV) with 6-7
  spatial resolution
• International collaboration INPE, UCSD, SRON,
  Tübingen, MIT
• Strong participation of Brazilian institutions
  and industry (IPEN, IEAv)
• To be launched in 2009

Low cost satellite US 10 Mi
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Pierre Auger Observatory

• An international facility to study the highest
  energy cosmic rays
• Located in Pampa Amarilla, Argentina
• More than 250 scientists from Argentina,
  Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, the Czech Republic,
  France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands,
  Poland, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom,
  United States, Vietnam.
• Example of collaboration between Brazil and
  Argentina.

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CoRoT

• COROT satellite is equipped with a 4-CCD
  wide-field camera
• Two scientific objectives
• The detection and the study of stars vibrations
  (stellar sismology)
• The search for extrasolar planets and more
  particularly the telluric planets
• The project is led by CNES, in cooperation with
  several French laboratories and partner countries
  (Europe, Brazil).
• launched in December 2006

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Radio Astronomy

• Radioastronomy had a strong increase in
  scientific production after the installation of
  the Itapetinga 14 m radiotelescope in 1972, by
  the CRAAM.
• The discovery and investigation of many H2O and
  SiO maser sources, including the first
  extragalactic megamaser, were reported
• A number of VLBI experiments in conjunction with
  Northern observatories were performed

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Itapetinga Radio Observatory ROI

• 13.7 m radome enclosed antenna
• Continuum at 22, 30, 43, 48, and 90 GHz
• Spectrometers operating at
• 22 and 44 GHz
• Criogenic radiometer
• 21.7 to 24.1 GHz
• ( molecular lines)
• Located at Atibaia (SP)
• Recent cost
• US 300,000 (reform)
• US 500,000 (receivers)

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Submillimeter Solar TelescopeSST

• Submillimetric (212 and 405 GHz) telescope for
  solar observations
• operated by CRAAM (Mackenzie University)
• located at El Leoncito Observatory, in Argentina
• Operating since 1999.

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Background Emission Anisotropy Scanning
TelescopeBEAST

• The BEAST experiment is designed to measure the
  Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at 30 e 41
  GHz
• 2.2 m dish with spatial resolution of 30 arcmin
• Launched by balloons (2000-2005)
• INPE
• Cost US 0.6 Mi (FAPESP)

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Galactic Emission MappingGEM

• 5.5 m radio antenna
• Determine the spatial distribution and absolute
  intensity of the microwave spectrum of the
  radiation emitted by the Milky Way galaxy and by
  the unresolved blend of external galaxies.
• 0.408, 1.465, 2.3 and 5 GHz
• Prototype at 10 GHz
• Cachoeira Paulista,SP, since 1998
• INPE
• Cost US 50,000 (FAPESP)

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Brazilian Solar Spectroscope BSS

• In operation at INPE since 1998
• 9 meter antenna
• Dedicated to solar spectral observations in
  decimetric band (200-2500 MHz) with high time
  (10-1000 ms) and spectral (3 MHz) resolutions.

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Brazilian Decimetric Array - BDA
PI Hanumar Sawant

• Interferometer of 5 parabolic dishes with 4 meter
  diameter
• Future 32 antenna array
• Observe the Sun at frequencies of 1.4, 2.7 and 5
  GHz.
• Cachoeira Paulista, SP
• INPE in collaboration with India.

Prototype 5 antennas at INPE-SJC. The container
is the control room.
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Interference fringes obtained between one pair of
antennas with Cygnus A
Now at new site at Cachoeira Paulista
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Phase I concluded Total funds obtained less
than 1 Million USD US100 k is being funded by
the supporting the development of the digital
part of the system for 38 antennas by the Indian
Institute of Astrophysics correlator chips
donated by the Nobeyama Radiheliograph
group. feed system designed by Berkeley
University antennas built by Brazilian
company 1-6 GHz receivers built by Brazilian
company Neuron circuits mounted at INPE A/D
converter, correlator in part donations Japan,
India
Total funds already obtained and spend from other
funding agencies are also of the order of US
900,000.00. Equivalent of US100 k is being
funded by the supporting the development of the
digital part of the system for 38 antennas by the
Indian Institute of Astrophysics, using
correlator chips donated by the Nobeyama
Radiheliograph group.
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Phase II increasing the number of antennas to
26 T shaped configuration , 252m East-West
162 m North-South front end, mechanical
structure, receivers and communication links from
control room to antennas and back just approved
by FAPESP will take 2 years Phase III will
extend to 2 km baseline
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Frequency catalog Radioastronomy
Site Location Lat/ Long/ Alt. Oper. Frequency Sensit BW Type Cont Line VLBI Type Cont Line VLBI Type Cont Line VLBI Application
ROI Atibaia-SP 23 11 05 S 46 33 28W 805 m 1973 10-50 KHz 6-7 GHz 11-13 GHz 18-24 GHz 21-24 GHz 32-37 GHz 40-44 GHz 45-50 GHz 80-100 GHz 0.1 0.1 10 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 1G 1G 1G 1G 1G 1G 1G X X X X X X X X X X X X X Ionosphere Sun Sun SunSun and gal. Sun and gal. Sun and gal. Sun and gal. Sun and gal.
ROEN Euzébio-CE 03 52 39 S 38 25 34W 1990 2-3 GHz 8-9 GHz 0.001 0.001 500M 1G X X X X Gal. and Extra gal.
BSS SJ Cam-pos SP 23 12 29 S 45 51 35 W 1990 1-2.5 GHz 10 3M X X Sun
BDA C. Pau-lista - SP 22 41 13 S 44 59 07 W 2003 1-5 GHz 0.001 2.5M X X Sun and gal.
GEM C. Pau-lista - SP 22 41 13 S 44 59 07 W 621 m 1998 408 MHz 1.465 GHz 2.3 GHz 5 GHz 10 GHz 10 1 1 1 1 80M 300M 300M 500M 500M X X X X X CMB
BEAST Balloon SP-MT 40 km 2004 30-31 GHz 38-46 GHz 90-91 GHz 150-151 GHz 300-301 GHz 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 1G 1G 3G 3G 3G X X X X X CMB
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Brazilian SKA Committee

• Abraham Chian DGE - INPE
  
• Adriana V. R. Silva CRAAM Mackenzie
  
• Albert Brush LNA
  
• Camilo Tello DAS - INPE
  
• Carlos Alexandre Wuensche DAS - INPE
• Carlos Augusto Morales IAG - USP
• Cesar Strauss DAS - INPE
  
• Elisabete Gouveia dal Pino IAG - USP
• Fabio Santos Lobão ANATEL
• Guillermo Gimenez de Castro CRAAM - Mackenzie
  
• Gustavo Medina Tanco IAG - USP
  
• Hanumant Shankar Sawant DAS - INPE
• Jacques Lépine IAG - USP
  
• Jane Gregório Hetem IAG - USP
• Joaquim Resende Costa CRAAAM - INPE
  
• José Ângelo Amado ANATEL
  
• José Leonardo Ferreira UNB
• Jose Williams Vilas Boas DAS - INPE
• Jorge Ducati IF UFRGS