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Mike Jura and IRAS, SIRTF, and Spitzer

Michael Werner

JPL/Caltech 14 September 2016

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IRAS

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Mike Jura foresaw one of IRAS’ major scientific results

•  In a series of papers between 1980 and 1982, Mike predicted that ordinary galaxies should glow brightly from 50-200um

•  This was based on modelling the absorption of star light by dust in the diffuse interstellar medium

•  He predicted that the nearest galaxies could be as bright as 100Jy at 100um

•  This prediction was borne out dramatically by the data from IRAS

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Far Infrared Emission From Galaxies

Mike’s Prediction

IRAS Bright Galaxy counts at 100um – Soifer et al

100 Jy

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Cosmic Background Radiation

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Without knowing it, Mike also predicted the spectral energy distribution of the cosmic background radiation – half of the stellar photons are absorbed and reradiated in the infrared.

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The Ghosts of Spitzers

Past – 1982-1995

Mike was a charter member of the SIRTF Science Working Group when it was formed in 1984

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SIRTF

•  Mike was named to the SIRTF Science Working Group [SWG] in 1984

•  The evaluation committee reported: “The investigator would add to the SWG a scientist with strong experience in the study of gas and dust in cold, low density regions. He understands the importance of SIRTF observations for the fields of galaxies, the interstellar medium, and circumstellar matter around red giants…”

•  Over the next decade, Mike worked with the rest of us to bring Spitzer to fruition

•  This required a lot of fancy footwork to keep up with the political tides

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1984 JPL Mission Development Workshop. JPL Internal Use Only. 20-8

SIRTF SWG, First Meeting

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1984 JPL Mission Development Workshop. JPL Internal Use Only. 20-9

SIRTF SWG, First Meeting

Fazio, Rieke, Boggess, Houck, Low, Herter

Newton, Gezari, Wright, Jura, Werner, Witteborn

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Mike’s Major Contributions to the work of the SIRTF SWG

•  Developed and managed Speakers’ Bureau •  Advocated effectively for galactic science with SIRTF •  Argued for SIRTF lifetime by emphasizing importance of “thinking time”

using simple but compelling arguments

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Thinking Time

SIRTF/Spitzer is its own followup Mike argued that one needs at least a three

year mission to realize even one cycle of follow up observations

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Annual Rate of Citations Spitzer Archival

Vega Paper

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Mike and the “Big Four”

•  At a ctiical junction in the life of SIRTF, Mike and George Rieke came up with a suggestion that set us on the road to success

•  This occurred at an SWG retreat in Broomfield, CO, in 1993, where we were trying to figure out how to get SIRTF into a very small box

•  Their suggestion that we focus only on a limited number of science themes was revolutionary for a Great Observatory but carried the day for SIRTF/Spitzer and has been adopted now by JWST

•  The SWG recognized the virtue of this immediately and adopted the following four themes: –  Brown Dwarfs and Giant Planets –  Protoplanetary and Protostellar Disks –  Ultraluminous Galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei –  The Early Universe

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SIRTF SWG 15th Anniversary

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Pre launch press conference, August 2003….Mike Jura and others in the final activity of the SIRTF SWG

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Spitzer Space Telescope 2003-2019

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Mike and Spitzer

•  Mike was not a hyperactive user of Spitzer – 17 Spitzer publications bear his name –

•  9 are on white dwarfs, his most significant Spitzer work and one of our most remarkable scientific results

•  Most of the others address protoplanetary or planetary debris disks

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Mike Helped Us Find C60 in the ISM with Spitzer

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Mike’s Comment on our First Paper Confirmatory spectrum shows third C60 line [further evidence from spatial distribution]

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Discovery of C60 in Space by Spitzer [Cami et al scooped us]

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This is a textbook example of how science works, as the molecule was predicted to be present in space in 1984 by Kroto et al based on

laboratory synthesis in a very similar environment

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Thank You, Mike!

•  Mike also invited me to teach at UCLA one quarter, and •  Presented me with outstanding students and post-docs:

–  Christine Chen –  Peter Plavchan –  Farisa Morales

2010 In this Scientific American article, Mike and I described disks around:

Supernovae Brown Dwarfs White Dwarfs [of course]