1. The DEUCE payload undergoing testing and integration at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Credits: Nicholas Erickson
2.The rocket is prepared at Wallops for delivery to White Sands Missile Range in Las Cruces, New Mexico for launch on Oct 30, 2017
Credits: Nicholas Erickson
3. The DEUCE grating, sensitive to ultraviolet, is carefully positioned for bonding into its flight mount. Credits: Nicholas Erickson
Though stars and galaxies fill our night sky, most of the matter in the universe resides in the dark voids in between. Spread out over unfathomable distances, this cold, diffuse gas between galaxies—called the intergalactic medium, or IGM for short—hardly emits any light, making it difficult to study.
Scientists plan to launch a sounding rocket for a 15 minute flight Oct. 30, 2017, equipped with special ultraviolet optics, which they hope will shed light on the nature of the IGM. The Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuum Experiment, or DEUCE for short, plans to measure starlight from a pair of nearby hot stars in the constellation Canis Major, aiming to help researchers understand how the IGM got to its current state.
Scientists know that the IGM, which is mostly hydrogen, has been blasted with high-energy radiation, causing the electrons to break apart from their atoms—a process known as ionization. Many think intense ultraviolet starlight from star-forming galaxies is responsible for ionizing the universe, but not all agree this is the sole cause. Since Earth’s atmosphere blocks ultraviolet light, it is impossible to study this type of radiation from the ground. Instead, scientists must capture this light from above the atmosphere and sounding rockets—which provide an inexpensive alternative to space telescopes—are a practical option.
“DEUCE is about being able to better understand if and how star-forming galaxies ionized the early universe,” said Nicholas Erickson, graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder, working with the project. “This ionizing light has never been measured accurately in hot stars, and DEUCE will make the first calibrated measurement of it, telling us the contribution B stars could have had to helping ionize the universe.”
The experiment will launch aboard a Black Brant IX sounding rocket from the White Sands Missile Range Las Cruces, New Mexico. NASA’s sounding rocket program, based out of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility, flies 20 rockets annually, testing new instruments and supporting cutting-edge research in astrophysics and heliophysics.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/sounding-rocket-probes-the-dark-regions-of-space
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