Carolyn A. Kierans, The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI): From Balloons to a Satellite

Friday 6 Nov 2020, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Berlin

Zoom

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a soft gamma-ray telescope that is designed to uncover the source of Galactic positrons, image diffuse emission from stellar nucleosynthesis, and perform polarization studies of gamma-ray bursts and compact objects. The COSI instrument has matured over decades through technology development with scientific balloons, most notably with the record-breaking 46-day flight in 2016. Currently, the COSI mission in a Phase A study for a NASA Small Explorer Mission (SMEX), which will allow for an exploration of the soft gamma-ray sky with unprecedented sensitivity. In this presentation we will give an overview of the science goals of COSI, the successful balloon program, and the future endeavors of the satellite mission.