2MASS
| 2MASS | |
|---|---|
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| Organization | UMass IPAC (JPL / Caltech) NASA · NSF |
| Wavelength | infrared (2 μm, 1.25 μm, 1.65 μm, 2.17 μm) |
| Data sources | Two 1.3 m equatorially mounted Cassegrain reflector telescopes (Whipple Observatory, Arizona, USA; Cerro Tololo, La Serena, Chile) |
| Goals | galaxies, brown dwarfs |
| Data products | images point source catalogue extended object catalogue |
The Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) was a survey of the whole sky in three infrared wavebands around 2 micrometres (μm): J (1.25 μm), H (1.65 μm), and Ks (2.17 μm).[1] The observations for the survey were taken between 1997 and 2001, at Mt. Hopkins, Arizona for the Northern Hemisphere data and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile, for the southern hemisphere.[2]
Contents
Catalog
The final data release for 2MASS occurred in 2003, and is served by the Infrared Science Archive. The goals of this survey included:
- Detection of galaxies in the "Zone of Avoidance", a strip of sky obscured in visible light by our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
- Detection of brown dwarfs. As of 2003[update], 2MASS had discovered 173 brown dwarfs, including 2MASS 0939-2448, 2MASS 0415-0935, 2M1207, and 2MASS J04414489+2301513.[3]
- An extensive survey of low mass stars, the most common type of star both in our own galaxy and others.
- Cataloging of all detected stars and galaxies.
- Infrared measurements from the 2MASS survey have been particularly effective at unveiling previously undiscovered star clusters.[4][5]
Numerical descriptions of point sources (stars, planets, asteroids) and extended sources (galaxies, nebulae) were cataloged by automated computer programs to an average limiting magnitude of about 14. More than 300 million point sources and 1 million extended sources were cataloged. In November 2003, a team of scientists announced the discovery of the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, at that time the closest known satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, based on analysis of 2MASS stellar data.
The resulting data and images from the survey are currently in the public domain, and may be accessed online for free by anyone.[6] There is also a list of 2MASS science publications with links to free pre-publication copies of the papers.[7]
2MASS is sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC, run by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech), NASA, and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
See also
References
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- ↑ Froebrich, D.; Scholz, A.; Raftery, C. L. (2007). A systematic survey for infrared star clusters with |b| <20° using 2MASS, MNRAS, 347, 2
- ↑ Majaess, D. (2013). Discovering protostars and their host clusters via WISE, ApSS, 344, 1
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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