Journal
JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTATION
Volume 3, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBL CO PTE LTD
DOI: 10.1142/S2251171714400017
Keywords
Submillimeter; telescope; balloon; star formation; polarization
Categories
Funding
- NASA [NNX13AE50G S04, NNX09AB98G]
- Leverhulme Trust through the Research Project [F/00 407/BN]
- Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
- National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs
- Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under the Consolider-Ingenio project [CSD2010-00064]
- NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship
- National Science Foundation [DGE-0948017]
- STFC [ST/K002023/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- NASA [120412, NNX09AB98G] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry (BLASTPol) was a suborbital experiment designed to map magnetic fields in order to study their role in star formation processes. BLASTPol made detailed polarization maps of a number of molecular clouds during its successful flights from Antarctica in 2010 and 2012. We present the next-generation BLASTPol instrument (BLASTTNG) that will build off the success of the previous experiment and continue its role as a unique instrument and a test bed for new technologies. With a 16-fold increase in mapping speed, BLAST-TNG will make larger and deeper maps. Major improvements include a 2.5-m carbon fiber mirror that is 40% wider than the BLASTPol mirror and similar to 3000 polarization sensitive detectors. BLAST-TNG will observe in three bands at 250, 350, and 500 mu m. The telescope will serve as a pathfinder project for microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) technology, as applied to feedhorn-coupled submillimeter detector arrays. The liquid helium cooled cryostat will have a 28-day hold time and will utilize a closed-cycle He-3 refrigerator to cool the detector arrays to 270mK. This will enable a detailed mapping of more targets with higher polarization resolution than any other submillimeter experiment to date. BLASTTNG will also be the first balloon-borne telescope to offer shared risk observing time to the community. This paper outlines the motivation for the project and the instrumental design.`
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available