11/06/2025
By Lynne Schaufenbil

Please join the Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology on Thursday, November 13 at 11 a.m. for a virtual seminar by Brian Fleming

Title: Integral-field Spectroscopy for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (With Rockets!)

Abstract:

Astronomy in the Far-UV (100 - 200 nm) is primarily the study of nearby objects, from stars and nebulae in the Milky Way to galaxies at redshift z < 1. At these distances, most of the non-stellar sources are brilliant and beautiful objects, yet the tools that have existed to-date are not suited to extended source spectroscopy. This has been in-part due to the science drivers of the 80’s and 90’s, where quasar absorption-line and stellar (“point-source”) spectroscopy dominated, but also due to the limitations of the technology of the times. With the development of large format, photon-counting detectors, advanced broadband mirror coatings, UV fiber optics, micro-mirror devices, and efficient aberration- correcting gratings, this technology-limited paradigm has changed. This talk presents several new instruments recently built or in development that test designs for long-slit, multi- object, and integral-field spectroscopy. These prototypes, sounding rockets, and SmallSats are laying the groundwork for future large-scale orbital survey missions, as well as the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). This talk provides an overview of enabling technologies, current and in- development missions, and concepts for both near- and medium-term mission designs for efficient, medium resolution surveys of local galaxies and nebular regions in the far- and near-UV.

BIO:
Brian Fleming is a research professor at the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics specializing in instrument development for mapping extended galaxies in the far ultraviolet. He received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 2013 and has since been the principal investigator (PI), deputy PI, or instrument scientist of nine existing or in-development space or suborbital missions, as well as four large mission concepts. He is obsessed with someday carrying out a large-scale survey of the circumgalactic medium of galaxies, but sometimes accidentally does work with exoplanets, low and high-mass stars (never medium ones), and even Solar System objects.

For the Zoom link, please contact Lynne_Schaufenbil@uml.edu