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COS Instrument Deployment

Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on May 11, 2009, to perform the final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. Included is the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, shown in the right, developed at the University of Colorado Boulder in partnership with Ball Aerospace. CU Professor James Green is the Principal Investigator. COS is the most sensitive ultraviolet spectrograph to date, and it studies the intergalactic medium, the atmospheres of ex-planets, and the halos of distant galaxies, as well as many other astronomical phenomena.

Primordial gravitational waves proper motion streamline simulation

Simulation of the proper motion streamlines induced by primordial gravitational waves. The pattern represents equal amplitudes of quadrupolar E- and B-modes. Color indicates proper motion amplitude: red is high, and blue is low. Limiting proper motion amplitudes of about 1 microarcsecond per year are expected from observations.

Simulation of Cosmic Web

CASA theoretical astrophysicists have used N-body plus hydrodynamic cosmological simulations to understand the weblike structure of dark matter and gas throughout the universe.

Anticipated impact on Vega’s field of view by a Starshade

Representation of Vega’s field of view without and with a starshade in place.

OMC1 cloud core explosion composite

A near-infrared and millimeter wave image showing the powerful explosion that occurred about 500 years ago in the OMC1 cloud core located about 0.1 parsecs behind the Orion nebula. The dim orange background shows the shock-excited, high velocity “fingers” of molecular hydrogen produced by this event along with the Trapezium stars which illuminate the Orion Nebula. The red and blue emission traces receding and approaching streamers of high velocity (up to +/- 120 km / sec) carbon monoxide gas traced by the ALMA telescope in Chile with one arc-second angular resolution. The yellow vectors show the proper motions of three massive stars that were ejected from the OMC core at about the time of the explosion. Their velocities range form 13 to 26 km / sec. The length of the vectors correspond to their motions over a time-interval of 2,000 year. The yellow circles mark the locations of these obscured stars today, along with a fourth suspected massive star.

Sounding rocket launch

Sounding Rocket Instrument Payload

CASA’s space instrumentation group, the Colorado Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Program, develops new instruments for NASA astrophysics missions while training the next generation of experimentally minded space scientists. The group currently has five space instruments flying or under development.

Supernova Explosion Blast Wave Simulation

CASA students and researchers have used sophisticated hydrodynamic codes run on supercomputers to study the interaction of blast waves from supernova explosions with surrounding clumps of stellar ejecta, enriched in heavy elements and dust. This figure shows the “shredding” of matter and destruction of dust grains from these shock-cloud interactions.

Dark Ages Radio Explorer

The attached is an artist’s concept of the Dark Ages Radio Explorer (DARE), a mission proposed to NASA’s MIDEX Explorer program. DARE will probe for the first time the epoch of formation of primordial stars and galaxies at redshifts 13-35. It uses the highly redshift 21-cm line of neutral hydrogen to study the intergalactic medium around the first luminous objects. DARE will orbit the Moon and take data at 40-120 MHz above the radio-quiet lunar farside.

"Baryon Census" Utilizing Cosmic Origins Spectrograph

CASA astronomers have used the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope to conduct a “baryon census” of ionized gas in the low-redshift Intergalactic Medium (IGM). Ultraviolet spectra of quasars in absorption lines of hydrogen and ions of carbon and oxygen show that over half the missing baryons reside throughout intergalactic space.

Cosmological History of Reionization of Hydrogen and Helium

CASA observers and theorists have analyzed the cosmological history of reionization of hydrogen and helium by early quasars and massive stars. These “epochs of reionization" occurred during the first 1-2 Gyr after the Big Bang. Reionization of helium (He II) has been observed by CASA astronomers using Hubble/COS spectra of bright quasars at redshifts z = 2.5 to 3.3.

The Cepheus A star forming complex showing near-infrared, shock-excited emission from hot (~2,000 Kelvin) molecular hydrogen which emits at a wavelength of 2.1218 micrometers (red), and the near-infrared continuum at a wavelength of 1.2 micro-meters (blue) and 2.2 micro-meters (green). Image obtained with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5 meter telescope using the NICFPS camera built at CU Boulder.

The Intuitive Machines Odysseus lander inside the fairing of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The lander will deliver the first low radio frequency telescope to the Moon called ROLSES (Radio wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photo Electron Sheath) and is designed to study the dynamic radio energy environment.