UVI-BurstCube

The objective is to detect gamma ray bursts that correspond to collapsing neutron stars and black holes.

Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are energetic electromagnetic events produced by merging neutron stars and black holes. There are two types of GRBs: short-duration gamma ray bursts (sGRBs) that last less than 2 seconds and long-duration gamma ray bursts (lGRBs) that range from 2 second to a few hundred seconds.

For BurstCube's and UVI-GREAT's mission, the interest will be in sGRBs, which are believed to be related to gravitational waves (GWs). GWs provide scientist with a new to observe the universe aside from electromagnetic radiation. UVI-GREAT would complement BurstCube and Fermi in the detection of GRBs enabling near complete sky coverage by providing 2 pi FOV.

To detect the gamma burst from extragalactic sources, the instrument will be built using cesium iodide scintillators, silicon photo-multipliers and a DRS4 evaluation board on a 3U CubeSat. The radiation sources used in the instrument testing include Americium-241, Cobalt-60, Cesium-137, and Bismuth-207.

Will collaborate closely with colleagues at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) who are also building versions of the same Gamma-Ray Burst detection satellite that we have here at UVI (BurstCube).