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Grâce à sa large couverture spectrale, le FTS de SPIRE a été capable de mesurer les signatures spectrales d'une grande variété de molécules, d'atomes et d'ions et, de ce fait, il a pu déterminer les conditions environnementales de nombreuses sources, allant d'atmosphères planétaires et de régions de formation d'étoiles jusqu'aux galaxies actives.
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Herschel's SPIRE instrument features a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS), internationally recognized as an area of Canadian expertise. With its broad spectral coverage, SPIRE's FTS has been able to measure the spectral signatures from a wide range of molecules, atoms and ions, and thereby determine the environmental conditions in a wide range of sources from planetary atmospheres to star forming regions to active galaxies. For example, the presence of supermassive black holes in the cores of active galaxies can be inferred from measurements of many carbon monoxide spectral lines over the broad frequency range offered by SPIRE. While the lower frequency lines can be explained by star formation activity, the highest lines observed by SPIRE require violent accretion processes thought to arise near a supermassive black hole. Equally exciting is the detection of water in these galaxies (the blue lines).
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