TopHat Scientific Goals
Estimate the mass of the Universe to at least the 10% level by measuring the variations in the CMBR.
- Need accuracy to better than 10 parts in 1,000,000 of the “constant” CMBR intensity of 2.7 K.
- Advanced TopHat detectors.
- Need relatively large sky coverage (these are statistical measurements).
- Unique TopHat sky scanning strategy.
- Systematic errors must be minimized (and also verified).
- Measuring from the top of the balloon, long flight duration, multi-band coverage (4 “colors”).
We will also provide a high precision map of the sky in the far-IR for galactic studies.