The next-generation BLASTPol experiment
arXiv:1407.3756 · doi:10.1117/12.2054419
Abstract
The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry (BLASTPol) is a suborbital mapping experiment designed to study the role magnetic fields play in star formation. BLASTPol has had two science flights from McMurdo Station, Antarctica in 2010 and 2012. These flights have produced thousands of polarization vectors at 250, 350 and 500 microns in several molecular cloud targets. We present the design, specifications, and progress towards the next-generation BLASTPol experiment (BLAST-TNG). BLAST-TNG will fly a 40% larger diameter primary mirror, with almost 8 times the number of polarization-sensitive detectors resulting in a factor of 16 increase in mapping speed. With a spatial resolution of 22 arcseconds and four times the field of view of BLASTPol, BLAST-TNG will bridge the angular scales between Planck's low resolution all-sky maps and ALMA's ultra-high resolution narrow fields. The new receiver has a larger cryogenics volume, allowing for a 28 day hold time. BLAST-TNG employs three arrays of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) with 30% fractional bandwidth at 250, 350 and 500 microns. In this paper, we will present the new BLAST-TNG instrument and science objectives.
12 pages, 6 figures. Presented at SPIE Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V, June 23, 2014. To be published in Proceedings of SPIE Volume 9145
References in corpus (13)
- Magnetic Fields in the Formation of Sun-Like Stars
- Dispersion of Magnetic Fields in Molecular Clouds. I
- An Imprint of Molecular Cloud Magnetization in the Morphology of the Dust Polarized Emission
- Filaments and ridges in Vela C revealed by Herschel: from low-mass to high-mass star-forming sites
- Collapse, outflows and fragmentation of massive, turbulent and magnetized prestellar barotropic cores
- 350 micron Polarimetry from the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
- BLAST: The Mass Function, Lifetimes, and Properties of Intermediate Mass Cores from a 50 Square Degree Submillimeter Galactic Survey in Vela (l = ~265)
- Magnetically Regulated Star Formation in Turbulent Clouds
- Proximity-Coupled Ti/TiN Multilayers for use in Kinetic Inductance Detectors
- Dispersion of Magnetic Fields in Molecular Clouds. III
- A New Artificial Dielectric Metamaterial and its Application as a THz Anti-Reflection Coating
- Lowering the Characteristic Mass of Cluster Stars by Magnetic Fields and Outflow Feedback
- Comparison of Prestellar Core Elongations and Large-Scale Molecular Cloud Structures in the Lupus I Region
Cited by in corpus (12)
- Using Herschel and Planck observations to delineate the role of magnetic fields in molecular cloud structure
- Horn-Coupled, Commercially-Fabricated Aluminum Lumped-Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors for Millimeter Wavelengths
- Applications for Microwave Kinetic Induction Detectors in Advanced Instrumentation
- First Observation of the Submillimeter Polarization Spectrum in a Translucent Molecular Cloud
- Probing the cold magnetized Universe with SPICA-POL (B-BOP)
- Broadband, millimeter-wave anti-reflective structures on sapphire ablated with femto-second laser
- Optical Demonstration of THz, Dual-Polarization Sensitive Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors
- Thermal Kinetic Inductance Detectors for millimeter-wave detection
- Witnessing the intracluster medium assembly at the cosmic noon in JKCS041
- Probing Oort clouds around Milky Way stars with CMB surveys
- Preflight Characterization of the BLAST-TNG Receiver and Detector Arrays
- Electromagnetic Properties of Aluminum-based Bilayers for Kinetic Inductance Detectors