Observing the dust

in our galaxy with

BLAST-TNG

Gabriele Coppi

University of Pennsylvania

07/07/2019

Properties of dust in the ISM

• Asymmetric grains with dimensions from ~1um to tens of um
• Strong absorption in UV and Optical region
• Emission in the infrared and sub-mm
• T ~20K

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From Sharif, PhD Thesis, 2015

Dusty galaxies

Andromeda

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How to create stars

Gravitational Energy

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Kinetic Energy

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Magnetic Field

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Pillars of creation

Eagle Nebula

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Dust as CMB foreground

Due to its polarization effect, dust is also a strong contaminant for extragalactic sub-mm observations

BK-2014

BK/Planck -2015

BLAST-TNG

NRAO

• Laura Fissel

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University of California

• Nick Galitzki (San Diego)
• Peter Ashton (Berkeley)

Cardiff University

• Giampaolo Pisano
• Carol Tucker
• Peter Ade

University of Pennsylvania

• Mark Devlin (PI)
• Gabriele Coppi
• Ian Lowe
• Nate Lourie
• Javier Romualdez

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NIST

• Jason Austermann
• Bradley Dober
• Jiansong Gao
• Gene Hilton
• Johannes Hubmayr
• Christopher McKenney
• Joel Ullom
• Michael Vissers

Northwestern University

• Giles Novak
• Paul Williams
• Erin Cox

ASU

• Phil Mauskopf
• Sam Gordon
• Adrian Sinclair
• Chris Groppi
• Matt Underhill

Università Milano Bicocca

• Federico Nati

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Balloon Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope - The Next generation

BLAST-TNG in numbers

• Primary Mirror Diameter: 2.5m (~8.2 feet)
• Observation Bands: 250um, 350um and 500um
• More than 3300 detectors
• Operating Temperature: 270mK (-459.184 F)
• Days at float: >23 days
• Altitude: ~120000 ft
• Data generated: >43 Tb (more than 10 millions photos)
• Weight: >5500 pounds
• Power: ~800W (less than a hair-dryer)

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Why BLAST-TNG

2010

2019

Planck

View from a balloon

View from SPIDER

Why BLAST-TNG on a balloon

• Increase atmospheric transmission
• Access to frequencies not visible on the ground

Why Antarctica

Why Antarctica

• Vastly desert with almost no population
• Summer polar vortex guarantees the balloon to follow a circular path (sort of)
• Sun 24 hours a day
• Minimal thermal cycle of the ballon, so stable altitude
• Power to charge batteries

BLASTPol flight path

Telescope

• Cassegrain configuration
• Aluminized mylar to protect from sun radiation (65 person working days to wrap it)

BLAST-TNG Camera

• Name: Layla
• Liquid ⁴He cryostat with 250L reservoir

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BLAST in the Media

Thanks for listening

and

Enjoy your beer(s)