FIREBALL: the Faint Intergalactic medium Redshifted Emission Balloon: overview and first science flight results
Abstract
FIREBALL (the Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon) is a balloon-borne 1m telescope coupled to an ultraviolet fiber-fed spectrograph. FIREBALL is designed to study the faint and diffuse emission of the intergalactic medium, until now detected primarily in absorption. FIREBALL is a path finding mission to test new technology and make new constraints on the temperature and density of this gas. We report on the first successful science flight of FIREBALL, in June 2009, which proved every aspect of the complex instrument performance, and provided the strongest measurements and constraints on IGM emission available from any instrument.
- Publication:
-
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray
- Pub Date:
- July 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1117/12.857850
- Bibcode:
- 2010SPIE.7732E..05M