Scientists at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate at Hanscom AFB, Mass., have created new maps, but these are heavenly: They are the first high-resolution map of the entire Galactic plane. The maps provide specific information about the Galactic structure and dramatically improve our knowledge of the space environment and its components.

In the near future, NASA will be using these maps for scientific analysis and to support their next "Great Observatory" mission, the Space Infrared Telescopic Facility (SIRTF), which will be launched in 2001. SIRTF will use AFRL's Galactic plane maps to direct their observatory to specific objects in order to study even finer details.

"The resolution and sensitivity of the MSX maps make them a perfect complement to the low-resolution all-sky infrared survey conducted by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) in the early 80s. But, the MSX maps provide more detailed but limited area observations of space observatories such as the Infrared Space Observatory (now defunct) and SIRTF," said Dr. Stephan Price, Principal Investigator for MSX Celestial Background experiments.

The large detector size available to IRAS limited the resolution of the instrument in regions of high source density, such as the Galactic plane. The modern detector arrays flown by MSX were 35 times better in spatial resolution, allowing the high source density and complex dust emission in the Galactic plane to be accurately mapped.

This level of detail was needed by Air Force systems to differentiate background characteristics from potential targets. Infrared wavelengths are important for target detection because an adversary can easily hide objects in space from optical sensors, but it is very difficult to hide the targets' infrared emissions.

In 1996-1997, the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) flew into space and looked at 15% of the sky, including the entire Galactic plane and the 4% of the sky that had been missed by the IRAS survey.

Using higher infrared resolution and greater sensitivity than IRAS, AFRL scientists used the MSX data to study the Galactic plane and its emissions in star forming regions, molecular clouds, and the diffuse interstellar medium.

For Air Force use, maps of the infrared stars and extended structures were created to study the ability of a system to detect a target in very cluttered regions.

The AFRL team has replaced IRAS's outdated and blurry picture of the infrared Galactic plane with new, sharp, multi-wavelength images. In conjunction with future missions, MSX data will help identify young planetary systems, clouds which are about to form the newest and most massive stars in our Galaxy, and shells, bubbles, and filaments caused by the interaction of stars with the interstellar medium.

MSX was launched for military purposes, to determine what was where. Figuring out why things look the way they do transformed the research from military to scientific purposes.