Properties of astrophysical submillimeter emission near the South Celestial Pole from the TopHat telescope (Antarctica).

摘要

The TopHat telescope was flown on a Long Duration Balloon (LDB) flight from McMurdo Station, Antarctica, on 4 January 2001. The telescope repeatedly observed a patch comprising ∼6% of the sky, centered on the South Celestial Pole (SCP), over ∼4 sidereal days. The observations were made in five frequency bands centered at 175, 245, 400, 460, and 630 GHz with an effective beam of ∼1° FWHM. Maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) dipole in the 175 and 245 GHz channels and both Galactic and extra-Galactic thermal dust emission in all channels were produced. This thesis gives an overview of the design, pre-flight testing, and flight performance of the TopHat instrument, with particular attention to the beam forming and cryogenic optics and the pointing mechanical drive. The data analysis pipeline for the Antarctic flight data is described, with particular emphasis the system noise properties, and the dust modelling and subtraction. Finally, the data are analyzed to find the integrated spectra relative to the background of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) and the star forming region 30-Doradus in the LMC, in combination with data from the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE). These spectra are fit to a single-component greybody emission model and best-fit dust temperatures, optical depths, and emissivity power-law indices are reported. These results are compared with other measurements in these regions. Using published dust grain opacities, the mass of the measured dust component in the three regions is estimated.