Paper 13093-280
Instrument overview of a gravitational wave counterpart CubeSat: BurstCube
Abstract
The simultaneous detection of both gravitational-waves (GWs) and the electromagnetic radiation counterpart from merging compact object binaries will provide a probe of the merger’s underlying physics, the nature of the progenitors, and the system’s post-merger state. BurstCube is a 6U (10 x 20 x 30 cm^3) CubeSat that will deliver the needed multi-messenger context for GWs by detecting, localizing, and rapidly disseminating information about short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) and other gamma-ray transients from across the full unocculted sky. BurstCube’s instrument consists of four Thallium-doped Cesium Iodide (CsI) scintillators coupled to banks of Silicon photo-multiplier (SiPM) arrays, and is sensitive to photon energies between 50 keV and 1 MeV. In this work we report on the outcomes of final instrument integration, testing, and pre-launch instrument performance of BurstCube.
Presenter
NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. (United States)
Daniel Violette received his PhD in astronomy and astrophysics from Harvard University in 2022, where he was supported by the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology Fellowship to develop future wide-field coded aperture imaging x-ray instrumentation. Daniel is currently a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center pursuing scientific and instrumentation interests in high-energy time domain astrophysics. He works closely with several programs including BurstCube, AstroPix, A-STEP, and ComPair 2.