Terry Herter

Specialty Areas

Infrared and Optical Astronomy

Research Projects

FORCAST: A Widefield Infrared Camera for SOFIA, Triple Spec: A Facility Near-Infrared Spectrograph for the Palomar 200-inch Telescope.

Biography

Terry Herter's interests include normal and starburst galaxies, circumstellar disks, and the galactic center. In the recent past he has also studied HII (ionized hydrogen) regions and planetary nebulae. From time to time, he has dabbled in planetary astronomy: observing planets, moons and comets. He has also working on the development and testing of infrared arrays for ground-based, airborne, and space-based astronomy.

He is Principal Investigator on a first light instrument on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The instrument, called FORCAST, is a camera that will be used to image star formation regions, debris disks around nearby stars, and other galaxies. SOFIA is scheduled to begin operations in 2010.

He is also involved in an effort by Cornell to build a large telescope in the high Atacama desert of Northern Chile and serves on a national committee (GSMT-SWG) summarizing the scientific potential of large ground based telescopes.

He is the lead on TripleSpec, a spectrograph that obtains simultaneously a complete 0.85 - 2.5 micron spectrum at a resolution of 2700. Three copies are of TripleSpec have been fabricated via a collaboration between Cornell, University of Virginia, Caltech, and JPL. The Cornell version of TripleSpec was delivered and commissioned in 2008 for use on the 200-inch Palomar Observatory Telescope.

Selected Publications

• "The Joint Astrophysics Nascent Universe Satellite," Roming, P., Fox, D., Bilen, S., et al. 2010, HEAD, 11, 48.06.

• "FORCAST: the first light instrument for SOFIA," Adams, J. D., Herter, T. L., Gull, G. E., et al. 2008, SPIE, 7014, 80.

• "The performance of TripleSpec at Palomar," Herter, T. L., Henderson, C. P., Wilson, J. C., et al. 2008, SPIE, 7014, 30.

• "Spitzer IRS Spectra and Envelope Models of Class I Protostars in Taurus," Furlan, E., McClure, M., Calvet, N., et al. 2008, ApJS, 176, 184-215.

• "Spitzer, Near-Infrared, and Submillimeter Imaging of the Relatively Sparse Young Cluster, Lynds 988e," Allen, T. S., Pipher, J. L., Gutermuth, R. A., et al. 2008, ApJ, 675, 491-506.

• "The TEDI Near Infrared Search for Cool-Star Exo-Planets," Edelstein, J., Muterspaugh, M. W., Erskine, D. J., et al. 2008, ASPC, 398, 509.

• "Decomposing Dusty Galaxies. I. Multicomponent Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting," Marshall, J. A., Herter, T. L., Armus, L., et al. 2007, ApJ, 670, 129-155

• "Near-IR CO Overtone Emission in 51 Ophiuchi," Berthoud, M. G., Keller, L. D., Herter, T. L., Richter, M. J., Whelan, D. G. 2007, ApJ, 660, 461.

• "Observations of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies with the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope II: The IRAS Bright Galaxy Sample," Armus, L., Charmandaris, V., Bernard-Salas, J., et al. 2007, ApJ, 656, 148.

• "The Mid-Infrared Properties of Starburst Galaxies from Spitzer-IRS Spectroscopy," Brandl, B. R., Bernard-Salas, J., Spoon, H. W. W., et al. 2006, ApJ, 653, 1129-1144.

• "A Survey and Analysis of Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph Spectra of T Tauri Stars in Taurus," Furlan, E., Hartmann, L., Calvet, N., et al. 2006, ApJS, 165, 568-605.

• "High-speed highly-flexible reconfigurable data acquisition system for astronomy," Pirger, B. E., Schoenwald, J., Herter, T. L., et al. 2006, SPIE, 6276.

• "Optical design of CCAT," Cortes-Medellin, G., Herter, T. 2006, SPIE, 6267.

Last updated: June 2010