HaloSat: A CubeSat to Map the Distribution of Baryonic Matter in the Galactic Halo

Approximately half of predicted baryonic matter in the Milky Way remains unidentified. One possible explanation for the location of this missing matter is in an extended Galactic halo. HaloSat is a CubeSat that aims to constrain the mass and distribution of the halo’s baryonic matter by obtaining an all-sky map of O VII and O VIII emission in the hot gas associated with the halo of the Milky Way. HaloSat offers an improvement in the quality of measurements of oxygen line emission over existing X-ray observatories and an observation plan dedicated to mapping the hot gas in the Galactic halo. In addition to the missing baryon problem, HaloSat will assign a portion of its observations to the solar wind charge exchange (SWCX) in order to calibrate models of SCWX emission. We present here the current status of HaloSat and the progression of instrument development in anticipation of a 2018 launch.