Deane M. Peterson
Associate Professor of Astronomy Astronomy Program Department of Physics and Astronomy State University of New York Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800 516-632-8223
dpeterson@astro.sunysb.edu

CURRENT PROJECTS

• Detecting companions among the calibrators of the A-F Supergiant luminosity - Oxygen IR triplet equivalent width relation: The issue here is to attempt to cull any remaining binary contamination by using the IUE to detect the companions in the UV. One binary (out of seven calibrators) has already been detected this way and we hope to firm up the limits on companions for six of the remaining calibrators (with S. Parsons).

• The rotation curve of the Milky Way: With a group of bright and plentiful objects like the A-F supergiants with known distances scattered around the Galaxy, a natural project is to evaluate the rotation curve. I have spectra of over 300 objects from KPNO and CTIO toward this project, and should be able to determine the rotation law out to twice the solar radius.

• The metallicity dependence of the A-F supergiant luminosity calibration: One of the critical issues in applying the Oxygen IR triple luminosity indicator is to evaluate the dependence of it on metallicity. As part of his thesis, Don Slowik observed a number of these objects in both the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. There he found clear evidence of the expected effect. We are now investigating whether a complex of lines at 870 nm will provide a means of estimating the metallicity, and removing the effects (with D. Slowik).

• Space Interferometry: For five years I have helped NASA's Office of Space Science initiate their effort in Space Interferometry. In 1994/95 I chaired the Space Interferometry Science Working Group whose charter was to help (then) Code SZ select a design for the Astrometric Interferometry Mission (now Space Interferometry Mission - SIM), to advise on long term space interferometry strategy and, finally, to integrate the SIM effort with those of the planetary search (ExNPS) and the Next Generation Space Telescope efforts.

  The SISWG disbanded early in 1996 to be replaced by the SIMSWG, the Space Interferometry Mission Science Working Group, coinciding with the entry of SIM into NASA's Phase A funding cycle. I have continued with the new SWG, now as Co-chair with Michael Shao. We are in the final stages of writing the mission's Science Requirements Document along with a string of recommendations to NASA Headquarters on how to implement various aspects of the mission.

  The Announcement of Opportunity to apply for Key Project status or membership on the SIM Science Team will be released this summer. When the winners of that competition are announced - late 1999 or early 2000 - the SIMSWG will disband. This will coincide with the mission entering what NASA calls phase B - prototype component testing - for the spacecraft.

  The various public documents from these committees may be accessed at the SIMSWG home page.

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS

• Absolute Magnitudes and Colors of A--F Supergiants from Near-Infrared Features. II. The Galactic Sample (with D. Slowik), AJ, 109, pp. 2193-2203 (1995).

• Scientific Support for Space Interferometry, Proceedings of the SPIE Conference on Spaceborne Interferometry II, ed R.D. Reasenberg, Vol. 2477, pp. 2-8 (1995).

GRADUATE STUDENTS

• Donald Slowik did his Ph.D. under my supervision, finishing in May 1995. His thesis was titled Absolute Magnitudes and Colors of A and F Supergiants from Near Infrared Features.

return to Astronomy home page