Observational Cosmology Missions & Programs

Current Missions

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) helped establish a simple and comprehensive cosmological model that connects the physics of the very early universe to the properties of the universe today. In this standard model, the universe is flat, homogeneous and isotropic on large scales. The universe is composed of radiation and atoms, but it is currently dominated by dark matter and dark energy. WMAP launched from Cape Canaveral on June 30, 2001, aboard a Delta II rocket. From launch to orbit about the second Lagrange point (L2), WMAP mission operations have been extremely smooth and reliable. WMAP continuously surveys the sky in a compound spin and precession that generates the desired scan pattern. There are no pointed observations. Planning is required for about four station-keeping maneuvers per year. Solar eclipse shadows were forecast for October 2007 and January 2008. After careful planning and peer-review, we executed a maneuver to avoid these eclipses. This was the largest maneuver since the early mission and it went smoothly. As of January 2009, WMAP has been in orbit for 7.5 years and is still taking data at L2. The WMAP team at GSFC includes ASD scientists Hinshaw, Wollack, Kogut and Bennett (now at JHU).

Artist's conception of GALEX spacecraft in space

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a Small Explorer (SMEX) ultraviolet survey mission, is in its sixth year of science operations. All flight and ground systems are currently healthy. GALEX is primarily a survey instrument, designed to obtain large, homogeneous imaging samples in two bandpasses (far-UV, 1350-1800Å, and Near-UV, 1800-2800Å) that are sensitive tracers of recent start formation. The resulting samples are cross-matched with wide and deep surveys at other wavelengths; a particularly rich GALEX also can provide wide-field, low-resolution spectroscopy, useful, e.g., for identifying HST/COS targets. The primary GALEX mission (completed in late 2006) had the goals: Calibrate UV observables to star formation rate (SFR); Measure star-formation history (0

ARCADE balloon launch Shown at the left is the Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission (ARCADE) balloon payload being readied for launch at Palestine, Texas. ARCADE measured the blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background with precision approaching that of the COBE/FIRAS instrument, despite the balloon environment. ARCADE features a double-nulled instrument in a novel open-aperture cryogenic payload, with no windows between the cold (2.7 K) optics and the ambient atmosphere. The ARCADE project released results from the 2006 flight. The principal result from this flight was the detection of an extragalactic radio background approximately six times brighter than the integrated emission from known populations of radio point sources. The ARCADE data are consistent with a superposition of a blackbody CMB plus a power-law radio background with parameters at reference frequency n0 = 1 GHz. Four papers describing the ARCADE instrument, the measurement of the sky temperature, the model of Galactic microwave emission, and the interpretation of the detected radio background have been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. A press release described the ARCADE instrument and the radio background, and a press briefing was held at the January 2009 AAS meeting in Long Beach, Calif. ARCADE team members in ASD include Kogut, Wollack, Mirel, and Fixsen. Al Kogut is the PI, and GSFC co-Is include Ed Wollack, P. Mirel, D. Fixsen and M.Limon. Read more about ARCADE at the ARCADE web page. Read more about ARCADE at the ARCADE web page.

Infrared Array Camera (IRAC): IRAC is a camera onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope (SIRTF), a cryogenically cooled IR telescope and the last of the Great Observatories. M81

It was launched in August 2003, and is working as well or better than designed. The picture to the right is a true color (3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8 micron) image of the galaxy M81 obtained with IRAC and released in December 2003 [image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Willner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)]. IRAC was built at GSFC; Harvey Moseley is the Instrument Scientist. G. Fazio at Harvard is the P.I. IRAC contains 2 InSb arrays (1-5.5 microns), and 2 HgCdTe arrays (2- 28 microns).

Future Missions

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): is a large cold facility-class general-purpose observatory that will be launched into orbit around the Sun-Earth. Its science goals range from detecting the first galaxies to form in the early universe to observing objects in our solar system.

In 2008, JWST was confirmed for implementation, a transition that began with the Preliminary Design Review in April 2008. The Project is now in phase C/D, and the project is working towards the Critical Design Review (CDR) in late 2009. The ASD provides scientific direction for JWST through seven project scientists. The Senior Project Scientist is John Mather and his deputy is Jonathan Gardner. The other members of the team: Matthew Greenhouse (Instrumentation), Bernard Rauscher (deputy); Mark Clampin (Observatory), Charles Bowers (deputy); and George Sonneborn (Operations). The ASD is currently seeking to hire an Associate Project Scientist for Integration and Test who will join the team to watch over the assembly, integration, test and commissioning of the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM), the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) and the observatory.

View a Quicktime movie about JWST.

The International Dark Energy Cosmology Survey (IDECS) is currently in science definition phase.

Mission Concepts:

The Submillimeter And Far InfraRed Experiment (SAFIRE) on the SOFIA airborne observatory is an imaging Fabry-Perot spectrometer operating at wavelengths between 100μm and 700μm. SAFIRE's key science goal is to investigate line emission in galaxies at wavelengths not visible from the ground, and to map the variation in this line emission in nearby galaxies. SOFIA will fly at an altitude where the atmosphere is mostly transparent, permitting SAFIRE to achieve a high point source sensitivity at most wavelengths. When SAFIRE achieved first light in 2006, it will add substantial capability to the first light instrument complement of SOFIA. SAFIRE's top priority observations will be to measure emission lines in the Galactic center, to map emission lines in nearby galaxies, and to understand the physics of the cores of ultraluminous galaxies from the local region to the high redshift universe through far-infrared fine-structure line emission. SAFIRE is scheduled to acquire first light on SOFIA after the observatory reaches Initial Operational Capability in 2010.