Balloon Programs in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory (665)

Science with ARCADE – Dale Fixsen
ARCADE measured the blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background, identifying a population of small spinning dust grains and detecting a bright extragalactic radio background of unknown origin.

PIPER – Dave Chuss
PIPER will measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background to search for the faint polarized signal predicted to result from inflationary gravitational waves.

BETTII – Stephen Rinehart
BETTII will study the early stages of clustered star formation, using an 8-meter Michelson interferometer operating in the far-infrared (30-90 microns) with a unique double-Fourier technique to provide spatially-resolved spectroscopy.

BOBCAT – Al Kogut
BOBCAT is a concept that will combine several innovations to increase far-infrared mapping speed by 5 orders of magnitude compared to SOFIA.