High angular resolution observations of star-forming regions with BETTII and SOFIA

High angular resolution observations in the far-infrared are important to understand the star formation process in embedded star clusters where extinction is large and stars form in close proximity. The material taking part in the star forming process is heated by the young stars and emits primarily in the far-IR; hence observations of the far-IR dust emission yields vital information about the gravitational potential, the mass and energy distribution, and core/star formation process. Previous observatories, such as Herschel, Spitzer and WISE lack the angular resolution required to study these dense star forming cores and are further limited by saturation in bright cores.The Balloon Experimental Twin Telescope for Infrared Interferometry (BETTII) is pioneering the path to sub-arcsecond resolution at far-IR wavelengths. This thesis talk discusses the instrumental challenges in building BETTII, as well as results from our SOFIA survey to illustrate the potential of higher-angular resolution observations. The 8m-long two element interferometer is being tested at NASA GSFC and is scheduled for first flight in fall 2016. BETTII will provide 0.5 to 1 arcsecond spatial resolution and spectral resolving power of 10 to 100 between 30 and 90 microns, where most of the dust continuum emission peaks in local star forming regions. It will achieve spatially-resolved spectroscopy of bright, dense cores with unprecedented high definition. This talk focuses on the main challenges and solutions associated with building BETTII: thermal stability, attitude/pointing control, and path length stabilization. In each of these areas we look at the trade-off between design, control, and knowledge in order to achieve the best-possible instrumental capability and sensitivity.As a first step towards resolving cluster cores, we surveyed 10 nearby star-forming clusters with SOFIA FORCAST at 11, 19, 31 and 37 microns. The FORCAST instrument has the highest angular resolution currently available in the far-IR. We use it to gain new insights in these important regions of stellar birth by now unambiguously matching the far-IR fluxes to their shorter wavelengths counterparts, and improve our understanding of clustered sources using SED modeling.