TopHat (Balloon)

TopHat was a scientific experiment launched from McMurdo Station in January 2001 to measure the cosmic radiation produced 300,000 years after the Big Bang. The balloon was launched on January 2, 2001 and proceeded to fly for 644 hours over the continent of Antarctica before landing on January 31, 2001. The balloon flew over the continent 38 kilometers above the ground, giving the telescope the ability to see the entire continent each day. Its results took over a year to analyze. The working payload was shut down on January 10, 2001 after sufficient measurements were made and the balloon simply circled the continent until it was safe to land, except that the landing missed the targeted ice shelf by around one half mile, and while the discs containing the information were recovered safely using a Twin Otter, the gondola itself had not been recovered by August 2001.

The telescope was called part of the "Submillileter Astrophysics Experiment" for Dr. Edward Cheng of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. It took 6 years to build and in the end weighed 500 pounds. It was built in association with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin and the Danish Space Research Institute. TopHat experiment was the first of its kind in that it placed the telescope on top of the actual balloon, where it rotated at a constant rate around a vertical axis; the first of its kind to do so and covered a 48 degree window of the sky. The placement allowed for the telescope to gain a unique view of the sky, with no obstructions and no light pollution being reflected from the ground. The balloon itself took up 29.47 cubic feet of space.

TopHat was built in part to follow up the observations of the BOOMERanG experiment which also studied the cosmic background radiation. TopHat was attempting to detect the clumpiness of matter, how much matter was in the universe, how the universe was expanding, and if it was indeed flat as had been observed by BOOMERANG. Around 300,000 years ago, the temperature of the universe cooled enough so that hydrogen atoms formed and the photons of energy (the radiation of energy from the explosion) were able to escape and travel indefinitely. This oldest form of radiation has a temperature of 2.73K and is uniform except for one part in 100,000 where the temperature is slightly different. The patchiness of matter indicates the earliest structures being formed in the universe and TopHat was designed to detect this patchiness on an extremely small scale.

References

Works Cited
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*Bless, R. C. Discovering the Cosmos. Suasalito, CA: University Science Books, 1996.
*"Classy Antarctic Balloon Captures the Earliest Light of the Univers." Imagine the Universe News. 1 Mar. 2001. High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center. http://topweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/press_releases/3_01_ing_univ_new.pdf.
*O'hanlan, Larry. "Balloon Captures Space Microwaves." Discovery.Com. 16 Jan. 2001. Discovery. *http://topweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/press_releases/disco_com_news_1-16-01.pdf.
*Tyahla, Lori. "The Latest TopHat Reports." MSAM TopHat. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. http://topweb.gsfc.nasa.gov.