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IR STIG Seminar

Infrared Science and Technology Integration Group

DATE

Jun 22, 2021

TIME

1:00 pm EST

COMMUNITY

IR STIG

TYPE

Seminar

Measurements of the Zodiacal Light Absolute Intensity through Fraunhofer Absorption Line Spectroscopy with CIBER

Phil Korngut (Caltech)

The Zodiacal Light, generated from scattered and re-radiated Sunlight and the Interplanetary dust cloud produces a bright foreground in the NIR, omnipresent in our 1AU neighborhood. This diffuse signal dwarfs the intensity of the Extragalactic Background Light, and historically, attempts to quantify the EBL through absolute spectro-photometry have relied on geometrical models for foreground removal. In this talk, I'll present recent results from the narrow band spectrometer aboard the CIBER sounding rocket which seek to independently quantify the intensity of the ZL foreground using Fraunhofer absorption lines. I'll show the accuracy with which the most widely cited foreground models describe the data and their implications for the Solar system and EBL.

Short Bio: Dr. Phil Korngut received his PhD in Physics from Upenn in 2005 where he developed a mm wave camera for the 100m Green Bank Telescope and used it to probe the Sunyav Zel'Dovich effect at high angular resolution in merging massive galaxy clusters. From there, he received a NASA Postdoctoral fellowship working on the CIBER and CIBER2 sounding rocket experiments to study the Extragalactic Background Light. Currently, Phil is a research scientist in Caltech's Observational Cosmology group. He serves as the Instrument Scientist on NASA's SPHEREx NIR all-sky survey mission, interfacing the demands of the astrophysical measurements to the design and capability of the infrared instrument.

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An illustration of Sun-like star HD 181327 and its surrounding debris disk. The star is at top right. It is surrounded by a far larger debris disk that forms an incomplete ellpitical path and is cut off at right. There’s a huge cavity between the star and the disk. The debris disk is shown in shades of light gray. Toward the top and left, there are finer, more discrete points in a range of sizes. The disk appears hazier and smokier at the bottom. The star is bright white at center, with a hazy blue region around it. The background of space is black. The label Artist's Concept appears at lower left.