The European liquid-helium cooled ISO-Satellite was equipped with ISOPHOT, an infrared instrument developed under the leadership of MPIA Heidelberg.

The present activities are a combination of the scientific harvest of a successfully completed space mission, the development of advanced instrumentation for an upcoming space observatory and study and prototyping activities for the next generation space telescopes. These tasks include:

• The scientific evaluation of the ISO mission data base, including ground-based follow-up observations in the infrared and submm-region.

• The operation of the ISOPHOT Data Center at MPIA ("archive observations"), including calibration updates of the data base.

• Instrumental, operational and scientific preparation of the PACS instrument for the upcoming HERSCHEL-mission.

• Design study activities for the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSPEC) of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, former Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST)).

The scientific activities of the group involve observations of star formation regions in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, studies of the extragalactic background radiation including all foreground components such as zodiacal light, interstellar and intergalactic dust, studies of very cold dust in galaxies, and the investigation of the powering of ultraluminous galaxies and quasars.

Members:
A. Bohm (project assistant), U. Grözinger, R. Hofferbert, A. Huber, U. Klaas (deputy), C. Kiss, O. Krause, D. Lemke (head), J. Schreiber, M. Stickel, R. Vavrek

Students:
S. Birkmann (Star formation regions in the FIR), E. Krmpotic (Ultraluminous galaxies), S. Mertin (Cryomechanisms for the Infrared Instrument of JWST)

Publications:
See the publication lists of the group 2003…1996

Last modified: February 23, 2004