Astrophysics (Index)About

SPIDER

(Suborbital Polarimeter for Inflation Dust and the Epoch of Reionization)
(2015 balloon-borne observatory to observe CMB polarization)

SPIDER (SPIDER is the official name, but previously was considered an acronym for Suborbital Polarimeter for Inflation Dust and the Epoch Of Reionization) is a balloon-borne observatory with six 26-cm aperture microwave, cryogenically-cooled refracting telescopes, each dedicated to a polarimeter with TES sensors. It is part of the effort to find large-scale patterns (primordial B-modes) in CMB polarization. SPIDER flew its initial mission over Antarctica in January 2015, successfully yielding data, though damaged on landing, not unusual for such balloon-based missions (but still far less expensive than equivalent space-based observatories). A second Antarctica flight took place December 2022 to January 2023, covering more frequencies.


(CMB,telescope,microwave,airborne,polarimeter)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_(polarimeter)
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010SPIE.7741E..1NF/abstract
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018JLTP..193.1112G/abstract
https://spider.princeton.edu/
https://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/2015/MCM-20150101.htm
https://astronomy.com/news/2021/01/flight-of-the-spider
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020SPIE11453E..2FS/abstract
https://physics.illinois.edu/news/SPIDER-balloon-borne-telescope
WaveLFreqPhoton
Energy
  
2.0mm150GHz620μeVbeginSPIDER
3.4mm90GHz372μeVendSPIDER

Referenced by pages:
CMB surveys
primordial gravitational waves
Taurus­

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