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

AST-0602286伦巴格，托马斯博士。Renbarger被授予NSF天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在加州大学圣地亚哥分校(UCSD)开展研究和教育项目。现代宇宙学最突出的问题之一就是宇宙电离能源的识别。最简单的解释是，第一光星系中的恒星构成了这种电离源。虽然这些恒星应该在宇宙近红外背景(NIRB)上留下独特的光谱和空间特征，但到目前为止还没有这样的探测，主要是因为对星际尘埃(黄道光)散射的光进行建模时存在不确定性。为了探测第一光星系的这种Nirb信号，伦巴格博士和他的同事们将建造宇宙红外背景探测器(CIBER)。CIBER是一套火箭携带的四个望远镜，除了直接成像黄道光的强度外，还将对Nirb进行成像和光谱处理。直接的黄道测量将消除对黄道强度建模的需要，从而消除宇宙近地天体测量中系统不确定性的主要来源。在接下来的三年里，伦巴格博士将指导黄道成像系统的设计、制造和测试，并领导实验室和现场的有效载荷集成。Renbarger还将开发并每年教授一门为高中生设计的学术丰富课程，该课程于夏季在加州大学圣地亚哥分校举行。这一以项目为导向的课程将包括推出CIBER有效载荷的缩小版本，其实验目标是测量大气温度和湿度随高度的变化。通过这门课程，伦巴格博士将带他的学生体验令人兴奋的火箭科学世界。在之前驻扎南极期间的公共宣传经验的基础上，Renbarger博士还将保持一个博客，在其中他将报告实验室进展和CIBER启动活动。这个博客将是继续与他的学生联系的一种手段，并将成为一个对公众友好的解释CIBER硬件和科学目标的资源库。

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.