Main Research Projects
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We are the PI institution for Micro-X, a sounding rocket payload
consisting of an X-ray telescope with an effective area of 200 cm^2
focusing X-rays onto an array of 128 superconducting Transition-Edge
Sensors (TES). The exquisite energy resolution of these detectors (a
resolving power of 1000 at 2 keV) will allow us to study bright,
extended X-ray astrophysical sources with unprecedented detail. Our
first target is the Puppis A supernova remnant. Our first fligh is
scheduled for February 2011.
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Over the last decade we have been able to prove through experiment that
96% of the Universe is made of invisible matter and fields of which we
know very little about. 25% of our Universe is made up of an as-of-yet
undiscovered substance called "Dark Matter". We are members of the
Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment seeking to directly
detect dark matter using cryogenic detectors.
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IXO will be NASA's flagship X-ray Observatory in the coming decade.
With this very powerful space telescope, we will probe the inner
regions around black holes, measure Dark Energy, and investigate the
structure and evolution of the Universe. We are working with our
collaborators at the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center to develop Position-Sensitive
Transition Edge Sensors (PoSTs) for the main detector of this exciting
mission.
Other Projects
We also collaborate on the following projects:
