Rocketing into the Background: Enlightening Young Scientists and the Reionization of the Universe

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AST-0602286Renbarger, ThomasDr. Renbarger is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). One of the most outstanding problems of modern cosmology is the identification of the reionizing energy source of the universe. The simplest explanation posits that stars in first-light galaxies comprise this ionizing source. Although these stars should leave a distinctive spectral and spatial signature on the cosmic Near Infrared Background (NIRB), to date no such detection exists, primarily because of uncertainties in the modeling of light scattered off of interplanetary dust (zodiacal light). To detect this NIRB signature of the first-light galaxies, Dr. Renbarger and his colleagues will build the Cosmic Infrared Background ExploRer (CIBER). CIBER is a rocket-borne suite of four telescopes that will perform imaging and spectroscopy of the NIRB in addition to directly imaging the intensity of zodiacal light. The direct zodiacal measurement will eliminate the need to rely on modeling of the zodiacal intensity and will thus eliminate the dominant source of systematic uncertainty in cosmic NIRB measurements. Over the next three years Dr. Renbarger will direct the design, fabrication and testing of the zodiacal imaging system and lead the payload integration in the lab and the field.Dr. Renbarger will also develop and annually teach an academic enrichment course designed for high school students held during the summer on the UCSD campus. This project-oriented course will involve the launch of a scaled-down version of the CIBER payload with the experimental objective of measuring atmospheric temperature and humidity vs. altitude. By means of this course, Dr. Renbarger will give his students a taste of the exciting world of rocket science. Building on previous public outreach experiences while stationed at the South Pole, Dr. Renbarger will also maintain a weblog in which he will report on lab progress and the CIBER launch campaign. This weblog will be a means to continue contact with his students and will serve as a repository of public-friendly explanations of CIBER's hardware and scientific goals.