TU Delft THz detectors to scan stardust in the Milky Way and beyond
“It was a tight schedule,” says Dr Jian-Rong Gao about the assembling and testing of the balloon satellite. Gao is the project leader for the Dutch contribution to the Gusto observatory – a satellite hanging from a helium balloon. It will map the distribution and composition of dust and gases between stars in the middle of the Milky Way, where stars are born and explode. Scientists hope this will help them understand more about stellar evolution.
Gao is an associate professor at the TU Delft Department of Imaging Physics (Faculty of Applied Sciences) and a senior instrument scientist at SRON (Netherlands Institute for Space Research). After a NASA competition, Gao was given the assignment to produce the on-board terahertz sensors six years ago. These are the ‘eyes’ of the Gusto (Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory) mission.
That was the starting point for the production of one eight pixel terahertz camera and the components for two more (see photos below). In total, TU Delft and SRON have invested 15 human years in their development, in addition to the R&D work by many master and PhD students before the Gusto project started.
The whole article can be read here.
Source: Jos Wassink / Delta - Independant journalistic platform TU Delft
