HaloSat - A CubeSat to Study the Hot Galactic Halo
Abstract
Observations of the nearby universe fail to locate about half of the normal matter (baryons) observed in the early universe. The missing baryons may be in hot galactic halos. HaloSat is a CubeSat designed to map oxygen line emission (O VII and O VIII) around the Milky Way in order to constrain the mass and spatial distribution of hot gas in the halo. HaloSat has a grasp competitive with current X-ray observatories. Its observing program will be optimized to minimize contributions from solar wind charge exchange (SWCX) emission that limit the accuracy of current measurements. We describe the current status of HaloSat.
- Publication:
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AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #16
- Pub Date:
- August 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017HEAD...1610325K