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NASA Joint Programs Update

NASA Joint Programs Update. Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee Meeting NSF Headquarters October 15, 2009. Dr. Jon Morse Director, Astrophysics Division Science Mission Directorate NASA Headquarters. NASA/DOE: Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope [JDEM, separate presentation].

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NASA Joint Programs Update

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  1. NASA Joint Programs Update Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee Meeting NSF Headquarters October 15, 2009 Dr. Jon Morse Director, Astrophysics Division Science Mission Directorate NASA Headquarters

  2. NASA/DOE: Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope[JDEM, separate presentation] NASA/NSF OPP: Ballooning

  3. NASA and NSF: Ballooning Update • New 5-year Memorandum of Agreement between NASA/SMD and NSF/OPP on Antarctic ballooning signed in May 2009 • Flight program update • New 2009 science result from Antarctic flight: BLAST (Balloon Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope) (PI=Mark Devlin)

  4. NASA/NSF MoA on Antarctic Ballooning • MoA signed in May 2009, operative for five years. • Enables continuation of long-standing cooperation between the NSF/Office of Polar Programs and NASA/SMD for support of scientific ballooning in Antarctica. • Annual requirement for support of two large science missions launched from McMurdo, with possible third mission in some years. • NSF provides housing, transportation, meals, medical. • NSF maintains Long Duration Balloon launch site infrastructure. • NSF provides support for payload recovery. • NSF and NASA shall meet annually to review changes, lessons learned, and improvements toward Antarctic balloon operations. • NASA provides NSF with funds to defray campaign support costs.

  5. FY 2010 Recommended Flight Program • 16 Missions / 20* Flights approved by SMD * BARREL mission (Antarctica) is comprised of 5 separate hand-launches • 2 Foreign & 2 Domestic Flight Campaigns • 16 Science flights (Plus 2 flights left over from FY 2009) 1 (+2) Ft. Sumner, NM (Fall 09) Airship Test 3 Antarctica (Winter 09) LDB/SP/MoO 5 Australia (Spring 10) Conventional/SP 2 Palestine (Summer 10) Conventional 5 Ft. Sumner, NM (Fall 10) Conventional • Antarctic campaign includes 14 MCF Super Pressure Balloon Test (goal of > 100 days) and planned recovery of BESS payload left on the Ice for two winters

  6. FY10 Antarctic Balloon Flight Program • FY2010 Flight Program: 3 Antarctic flights (Winter 09): • 14 MCF super-pressure balloon test (> 100 days?) • CREAM (Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass) -5 – precise measurements of elemental spectra for z = 1 to 26 in 1011 to 1015 eV region • BARREL – five hand-launched balloons (~0.25 MCF) – measures precipitating electrons from radiation belts (Heliophysics Division) • Antarctic campaign includes: • Planned recovery of BESS payload left on the ice for 2 years

  7. 2009 Super Pressure Balloon Test Flight • 54 days of flight • Balloon remained pressurized- no apparent gas loss. • It could have flown indefinitely. • Largest super pressure balloon ever successfully flown • Longest large NASA balloon flight ever

  8. FY 2010 Flight Schedule STATUS AS OF: 09/15/09

  9. BLAST Balloon Science Result (Sept. 2009; flew 2006): Resolving the Cosmic Submillimeter Background—individual, distant galaxies are the source

  10. NASA and DOE: Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Update The one-year Fermi-LAT sky: Over 1000 new high-energy gamma-ray sources

  11. Fermi accomplishments include • Detected the moon and the quiet Sun • Detected dozens of pulsars, many pulsing only in gamma-rays and several millisecond pulsars • Detected the globular cluster 47 Tucanae • Detected orbital variations in gamma-ray emission from several binary systems • Resolved the gamma-ray emission from the LMC and several SNR • Significant implications for understanding the origin of cosmic-rays • Resolved in gamma-rays the radio lobes of Cen A • Detected over 270 GRB including 12 above 100 MeV • Use relative arrival times of high and low energy gamma-ray photons to set stringent constraints on Lorentz invariance violation. • Detected new gamma-ray AGN population ((Narrow-Line Seyfert galaxies) • Data release on Aug 25 - all LAT and GBM data are now public within 72 hours. • First Fermi symposium Nov 2-5 in Washington, DC. Fermi charts courtesy of Julie McEnery

  12. Gamma-ray bursts • 10 long and 2 short bursts detected by LAT at GeV energies • Both types of GRB show similar phenomenology at high energies • Swift XRT has detected X-ray afterglows from the 7 brightest LAT bursts resulting in the determination of the burst redshift/distance. Short GRB081024B Long GRB090323 (>200s), radio - GeV afterglow Long GRB080916C Intense, z=4.35, to 13 GeV Short GRB090510 Intense, z=0.9, to 31 GeV

  13. Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Status • The LAT and GBM are both working well • First LAT GeV catalog (currently being validated/checked) contains over 1000 new gamma-ray sources! • New classes of gamma-ray sources (millisecond pulsars, gamma-ray binaries, globular clusters, starburst galaxies…) • field of gamma-ray astrophysics is rapidly expanding • GBM is detecting many kinds of MeV transients • >250 GRB/year, three SGRs (SGR 0501+4516, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1E1547.0-5408), >10 TGFs and a solar flare. • Science returns in solar system studies, Galactic astrophysics, extragalactic astrophysics, cosmic-ray physics and fundamental physics. • The full data release was last month, software to assist with data analysis is also available. • http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc • Lots more science to come… (Gamma-ray pulsars, 0.1-1 TeV electrons, Testing Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity, etc.)

  14. Upcoming One-Year Symposium • Fermi symposium • Washington DC, Nov 2-5 • http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/resources/newsletter/ • General news • Multiwavelength • Data/software • LAT data became public on Aug 25 • http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc

  15. Backup Slides

  16. Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM-IV)Eun-Suk Seo, University of Maryland • 19.5 days of flight • First instrument ever to exceed 100 days of exposure (119 Days) • Invited Highlight talk, 31st ICRC, Lodz, Poland (Submitted for Publication)

  17. Fermi Cycle-2 Program • 199 proposals received, 80 selected • 79 grants • 8 “Progress Reports”, all passed • 3 multi-year “Large Projects” selected • Down from 8 selections in Cycle-1 • $1.5M in m-yr obligations from Cycle-1 • Average grants: $174k (large) $78k (regular) • No pointed observations approved (2 requests) • NRAO: ~650 hours awarded • ~50% of proposed amount • NOAO: under-utilized resource • 3 requests, 1 award (24 hrs)

  18. Limits on Lorentz Invariance Violation • Heuristic modification of the photon dispersion relation : • c2 P2 = E2 ( 1+ f(E/EQG ))EQG : effective LIV energy scale • For E<<EQG : c2 P2 = E2 ( 1+ (E/EQG )n + (E/EQG )n+1) • n=1 or 2 in current studies • is just a constant (can disappear in EQG) • : subluminal regime (high energy photons arrive later) • : superluminal regime (high energy photons arrive earlier) v=E/P ~ c ( 1+ (E/EQG )n)‏ • Simple case : n=1, : • Consider a photon of energy E observed at t. • If it belongs to the GRB, at the very least it has been emitted after the trigger t0. • Thus the maximal time delay due to LIV is t-t0 : dt<t-t0 • With a distance estimate, this results in a “conservative” lower limit on EQG • Independent of intrinsic time lags in GRBs

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