HaloSat: Early results on the mass of the Milkyway halo
Résumé
HaloSat is the first NASA SMD CubeSat funded through the ROSES Astrophysics Research and Analysis Program. HaloSat's goal is test the hypothesis that the 'missing baryons' reside in hot dilute halos of visible galaxies. This is performed by performing an all-sky survey and measuring Oxygen line emission from the halo of the Milkyway. Halo gas is predicted to have temperatures near a million degrees and is can be separated and traced by an experiment with large grasp and energy resolution < 100 eV in the vicinity of the emission lines of O VII and O VIII. HaloSat was deployed from the International Space Station in mid-July and began routine science operations in October. We present initial scientific results, including observations of the Cygnus loop and Crab Nebula, which demonstrate instrument performance and contribute to the in-orbit energy scale calibration, and selected high latitude regions.