The Astronomical Journal (Jan 2024)
SuperBIT Superpressure Flight Instrument Overview and Performance: Near-diffraction-limited Astronomical Imaging from the Stratosphere
- Ajay S. Gill,
- Steven J. Benton,
- Christopher J. Damaren,
- Spencer W. Everett,
- Aurelien A. Fraisse,
- John W. Hartley,
- David Harvey,
- Bradley Holder,
- Eric M. Huff,
- Mathilde Jauzac,
- William C. Jones,
- David Lagattuta,
- Jason S.-Y. Leung,
- Lun Li,
- Thuy Vy T. Luu,
- Richard Massey,
- Jacqueline E. McCleary,
- Johanna M. Nagy,
- C. Barth Netterfield,
- Emaad Paracha,
- Susan F. Redmond,
- Jason D. Rhodes,
- Andrew Robertson,
- L. Javier Romualdez,
- Jürgen Schmoll,
- Mohamed M. Shaaban,
- Ellen L. Sirks,
- Georgios N. Vassilakis,
- André Z. Vitorelli
Affiliations
- Ajay S. Gill
- ORCiD
- Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; [email protected]; David A. Dunlap Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 Street George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada; Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 Street George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada
- Steven J. Benton
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Princeton University , Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
- Christopher J. Damaren
- University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) , 4925 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M3H 5T6, Canada
- Spencer W. Everett
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Aurelien A. Fraisse
- Department of Physics, Princeton University , Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
- John W. Hartley
- StarSpec Technologies Inc. Unit C-5 , 1600 Industrial Road, Cambridge, ON N3H 4W5, Canada
- David Harvey
- ORCiD
- Laboratoire d’Astrophysique , EPFL, Observatoire de Sauverny, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- Bradley Holder
- University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) , 4925 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M3H 5T6, Canada
- Eric M. Huff
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Mathilde Jauzac
- ORCiD
- Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University , South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- William C. Jones
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Princeton University , Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
- David Lagattuta
- ORCiD
- Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University , South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Jason S.-Y. Leung
- ORCiD
- David A. Dunlap Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 Street George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada; Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 Street George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada
- Lun Li
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Princeton University , Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA; StarSpec Technologies Inc. Unit C-5 , 1600 Industrial Road, Cambridge, ON N3H 4W5, Canada
- Thuy Vy T. Luu
- Department of Physics, Princeton University , Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
- Richard Massey
- ORCiD
- Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Department of Physics, Durham University , Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Jacqueline E. McCleary
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Northeastern University , 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Johanna M. Nagy
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University , Rockefeller Building, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
- C. Barth Netterfield
- David A. Dunlap Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 Street George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada; Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto , 50 Street George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada; Department of Physics, University of Toronto , 60 Street George Street, Toronto, ON M5R 2M8, Canada
- Emaad Paracha
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Toronto , 60 Street George Street, Toronto, ON M5R 2M8, Canada
- Susan F. Redmond
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA; California Institute of Technology , 1216 E. California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Jason D. Rhodes
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Andrew Robertson
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- L. Javier Romualdez
- StarSpec Technologies Inc. Unit C-5 , 1600 Industrial Road, Cambridge, ON N3H 4W5, Canada
- Jürgen Schmoll
- ORCiD
- Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University , South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
- Mohamed M. Shaaban
- ORCiD
- Scale AI 303 2nd Street, South Tower, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA
- Ellen L. Sirks
- ORCiD
- School of Physics, The University of Sydney and ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics , NSW 2006, Australia
- Georgios N. Vassilakis
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Northeastern University , 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- André Z. Vitorelli
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad5840
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 168,
no. 2
p. 85
Abstract
SuperBIT was a 0.5 m near-UV to near-infrared wide-field telescope that launched on a NASA superpressure balloon into the stratosphere from New Zealand for a 45-night flight. SuperBIT acquired multiband images of galaxy clusters to study the properties of dark matter using weak gravitational lensing. We provide an overview of the instrument and its various subsystems. We then present the instrument performance from the flight, including the telescope and image stabilization system, the optical system, the power system, and the thermal system. SuperBIT successfully met the instrument’s technical requirements, achieving a telescope pointing stability of 0.″34 ± 0.″10, a focal plane image stability of 0.″055 ± 0.″027, and a point-spread function FWHM of ∼0.″35 over 5-minute exposures throughout the 45-night flight. The telescope achieved a near-diffraction-limited point-spread function in all three science bands ( u , b , and g ). SuperBIT served as a pathfinder to the GigaBIT observatory, which will be a 1.34 m near-UV to near-infrared balloon-borne telescope.
Keywords
- High altitude balloons
- Galaxy clusters
- Space telescopes
- Gravitational lensing
- Weak gravitational lensing
- Astronomical instrumentation
