Probing Structure Formation with the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment 2 (CIBER-2)
Abstract
The integrated emission from all sources of light outside of the Milky Way, known as the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL), traces the history of star formation from the Epoch of Reionization (EOR) to the modern era. The measured fluctuations in the near infrared (IR) region of the EBL exceed the expected signal from known galaxy populations. These fluctuations can originate from sources at very high redshifts (EOR or earlier), or from stars that are gravitationally separated from their host galaxies during merging events at more recent epochs. To disentangle these two populations using their spectral signatures, the second Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER-2) uses a 28.5-cm wide field imager with six wavebands from 0.5 - 2.5 micron to significantly improve the wavelength coverage and sensitivity to enable an assessment of these EBL components. CIBER-2 is scheduled to fly multiple times on a recoverable NASA Black Brant IX sounding rocket. In this talk, we show how CIBER-2 addresses near-IR fluctuations science, present the status and performance of the payload, and outline the remaining steps to ready the experiment for flight.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #233
- Pub Date:
- January 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AAS...23321502N