Conference proceeding
Flight performance and first results from the Sub-orbital Local Interstellar Cloud Experiment (SLICE)
UV, X-RAY, AND GAMMA-RAY SPACE INSTRUMENTATION FOR ASTRONOMY XVIII, Vol.8859, pp.885910-885910-13
Proceedings of SPIE
08/25/2013
DOI: 10.1117/12.2023400
Abstract
We present the flight performance and preliminary science results from the first flight of the Sub-orbital Local Interstellar Cloud Experiment (SLICE). SLICE is a rocket-borne far-ultraviolet instrument designed to study the diffuse interstellar medium. The SLICE payload comprises a Cassegrain telescope with LiF-coated aluminum optics feeding a Rowland Circle spectrograph operating at medium resolution (R similar to 5000) over the 102 - 107 nm bandpass. We present a novel method for cleaning LiF-overcoated Al optics and the instrumental wavelength calibration, while the details of the instrument design and assembly are presented in a companion proceeding (Kane et al. 2013). We focus primarily on first results from the spring 2013 launch of SLICE in this work. SLICE was launched aboard a Terrier-Black Brant IX sounding rocket from White Sands Missile Range to observe four hot stars sampling different interstellar sightlines. The instrument acquired approximately 240 seconds of on-target time for the science spectra. We observe atomic and molecular transitions (HI, OI, CII, OVI, H-2) tracing a range of temperatures, ionization states, and molecular fractions in diffuse interstellar clouds. Initial spectral synthesis results and future plans are discussed.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Flight performance and first results from the Sub-orbital Local Interstellar Cloud Experiment (SLICE)
- Creators
- Kevin France - Univ Colorado, Ctr Astrophys & Space Astron, Campus Box 391, Boulder, CO 80309 USANicholas Nell - University of Colorado BoulderKeri Hoadley - University of Colorado BoulderRobert Kane - University of Colorado BoulderEric B. Burgh - Ames Research CenterMatthew BeasleyRachel Bushinsky - Univ Colorado, Ctr Astrophys & Space Astron, Campus Box 391, Boulder, CO 80309 USATed B. Schultz - University of IowaMichael Kaiser - University of Colorado BoulderChristopher Moore - University of Colorado BoulderJennifer Kulow - University of Colorado BoulderJames C. Green - Univ Colorado, Ctr Astrophys & Space Astron, Campus Box 391, Boulder, CO 80309 USA
- Contributors
- O H Siegmund (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Publication Details
- UV, X-RAY, AND GAMMA-RAY SPACE INSTRUMENTATION FOR ASTRONOMY XVIII, Vol.8859, pp.885910-885910-13
- Series
- Proceedings of SPIE
- DOI
- 10.1117/12.2023400
- ISSN
- 0277-786X
- eISSN
- 1996-756X
- Publisher
- Spie-Int Soc Optical Engineering
- Number of pages
- 13
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/25/2013
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984428780702771
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