Projects
Astro-H
Astro-H is the sixth in the series of successful Japanese X-ray observatories devoted to the study of energetic processes in celestial objects. Under development for a 2014 launch by the Japanese space agency JAXA jointly with NASA, the mission will investigate the physics of the high-energy Universe via a suite of four instruments, covering... Read More »
BICEP2
The primary goal of BICEP2 is to measure the very faint polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The CMB is a nearly perfect, uniform black body at 2.7 K, with degree-scale temperature anisotropy of about 0.1 mK and polarization on the order of microkelvin. This radiation was emitted 380,000 years after the Big Bang, at the time of... Read More »
Cherenkov Telescope Array
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project is an initiative to build the next generation ground-based very high energy gamma-ray instrument. It will serve as an open observatory to a wide astrophysics community and will provide a deep insight into the non-thermal high-energy universe.
The present generation of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov... Read More »
Computational Astrophysics
On these pages you will find an selection of the wide range of computational challenges tackled by KIPAC researchers. Our mission is to bridge theoretical and experimental physics communities to bring their combined strength to bear on some of the most challenging and fascinating problems in particle astrophysics and cosmology.
Computing is... Read More »
Cryogenic Dark Matter Search
A leading hypothesis on the nature of Dark Matter is that it is comprised of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, or WIMPs, that were produced moments after the Big Bang. If WIMPs are the dark matter, then their presence in our galaxy may be detectable via scattering from atomic nuclei in detectors located deep underground.
The Cryogenic... Read More »
Dark Energy Survey
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a new survey of distant galaxies that aims to unravel the mystery of cosmic acceleration.
The DES will provide researchers with multiple techniques to measure and study dark energy, the driving force of cosmic acceleration. By examining such factors as the properties of galaxy clusters, measurements of weak... Read More »
Fermi
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST or Fermi) is a space observatory being used to perform gamma-ray astronomy observations from low Earth orbit. Originally called the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, the mission was renamed for the physicist Enrico Fermi after its successful launch into orbit aboard a Delta II 7920-H rocket... Read More »
KECK
The Keck Array
The Keck Array is a sensitive telescope for measuring the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on degree angular scales. Like its sister project, BICEP2, it is designed for excellent control of systematics. The Keck Array is made up of several identical telescopes, with the multiple receivers giving... Read More »
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a large-aperture wide-field, ground-based telescope that will survey half the sky every few nights in six optical bands ranging from 320 to 1050 nm.
The LSST camera, currently in the final stages of the R&D phase ,will produce a data set that will allow us to better evaluate a wide range of... Read More »
MIMIC Receiver Development for Large-Format Astronomy Arrays
The development of large-format heterodyne receiver arrays will enable a number of state-of-the-art astrophysical measurements. In particular, we are developing instruments that will conduct spectroscopic mapping of star-forming galactic regions, detection of the cosmic microwave background polarization, and measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel’... Read More »
Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
NuSTAR is a satellite-based observatory sensitive in the hard X-ray band covering the energy range of 5-80 keV. It has been developed and built under the auspices of NASA's Explorer program, and is led by Caltech (the PI is Prof. Fiona Harrison), with involvement of many other institutions including NASA's JPL, Columbia University,... Read More »
Planck
Planck observes the sky in the frequency range from 30 GHz to 857 GHz. The central horizontal band is dust emission from our own galaxy, the Milky Way, with gas and dust emission extending to high galactic latitudes. Away from the galactic plane the red and yellow structure shows the small fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)... Read More »
POLAR
POLAR-1 and POLAR ARRAY
POLAR-1 will be commissioned at the South Pole in the fall of 2012. It will consist of a large-format focal plane camera with about 4,000 polarization-sensitive superconducting bolometers operating at 150 GHz, integrated with a 1.6 m reflective telescope. POLAR-1 will be the most sensitive CMB polarimeter when it is built.... Read More »
QUIET II
The QUIET experiment is designed to search for the imprint of inflation in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation by measuring so-called "B-mode" patterns of polarization that are expected to be produced by gravitational waves generated during inflation. This signature, which would allow the energy scale of inflation to be determined... Read More »
Solar Physics
Observational and theoretical research on the physics of the sun is carried out at Stanford University in several research groups. This URL will link you to the projects carried out by a group of scientists and supporting staff associated with the Center for Space Science and Astrophysics (CSSA) and the Hansen Exerimental Physics Laboratories (... Read More »
Wide-field Infrared Survey Telescope
WFIRST is a proposed infrared space telescope designed to study Dark Energy, our galaxy and to search for planets. WFIRST was the leading recommended large space-based project in the recent decadal survey, combining elements from the previous Joint Dark Energy Mission with a proposal to search for planets via gravitational lensing and... Read More »