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Welcome!

Welcome to UCSB Experimental Cosmology Group. We are an Experimental Astrophysics Group primarily focused on studies of the early universe.

Currently active projects include:

the ESA-NASA Planck mission
COFE (a balloon borne CMB foregrounds experiment)
Bmachine prototype (ground based CMB polarization)
ARCADE (Balloon borne CMB spectrum)
TOSS (the Transient Optical Sky Survey)

We also have an active education and outreach program.

Having problems viewing our website in Internet Explorer? Use the Compatibility Mode under Page.

Planck was successfully launched! Planck launch 6:12 AM Pacific Thur May 14, 2009 – Live Planck launch feed: http://www.videocorner.tv/

We are located at: Experimental Cosmology Group,Physics Department,University of California,Santa Barbara 805.893.8418

Thanks for visiting! Please leave us comments and feedback.

: B-Machine at Night summer 2008 – Barcroft – White Mountain – note Milky Way

: View from inside the old dome at WMRS

: Sunset over the dome at WMRS

: Sunrise at WMRS

: NASA Palestine, Texas flight facility – 1980 – note Rai Weiss and David Wlkinson

: Entrance to South Pole Dome

: Todd gaier and Mike Seiffert at the South Pole

: Welcome to the South Pole – “Old Dome”

: Welcome to the South Pole – “Old Dome”

: C-130 at South Pole awaiting takeoff

: South Pole 1988 – structures eventually get buried

: South Pole 1988 – Todd Gaier and Jeff Schuster

: In the jungle – searching for TMSS payload – Brazil 1985

: South Pole ACME-HEMT 1990-91 Combined data set – first CMB horizon scale detection

: Downed TMSS Payload in Trees in Brazil – 1985

: South Pole – 1988

: TMSS-1 with MIT Gondola – Gerald Epstein 1981

: COBE satellite launch – VAFB Nov 1989

: Tapirai Brazil 1985 – TMSS crash site near Uruguay

: ACME-MAX Ft. Sumner

: BLAST payload with Jeff Schuster 1991

: RAAP Construction UCSB – undergrad crew who built it – 1990

: South Pole 1988 – Todd Gaier and Jeff Schuster transferring LHe

: South Pole – 1988

: South Pole – 1988

: “Start of Round the World Race” – South Pole 1988

: C-130 on Skis – Ross Ice shelf – McMurdo Nov 1988

: Brazil Jungle Recovery of TMSS 1985 – near border with Uruguay – Tapirai Brazil

: The “Orb” at the South Pole – with a compact Hummer

: The “Orb” at the South Pole – what do you see?

: C-130 at South Pole – The engines stay on to keep warm

: Flat Plate at South Pole – Todd Gaier adjusting just before deployment on ice – 1988

: ACME – SIS at South Pole – 1988

: South Pole – 1988

: South Pole – 1988

: Flying to the South Pole – cockpit of C-130 1988

: TMSS – Brazil launch nightime launch attempt Nov 1983

: TMSS just before launch – Brazil Nov 1983

: ACME just before launch – Ft Sumner, NM 1990

: COBE satellite schematic

: COBE satellite launch VAFB Nov 1989

: Blast – Open Aperture Absolute Spectrometer – balloon payload cryogenic optics – 1990

: ACME launch – NASA Ft Sumner, NM

: South Pole 1988 – C-130 that did not make it

: South Pole 1988 – barber pole is at the actual geographic pole

: South Pole 1988 – notice lastest fashion

: TMSS – 3 mm CMB near full sky map 1984 – all five flights – missing section was from loss of payload in Brazil

: TMSS-2 payload with Princeton Group gondola 1981 – Smoot and Lubin during testing

: ACME-I launch 1988 – Alfredo Chinguanco and Tiny Tim

: UCSB Flag – South Pole 1989

: TMSS termination fitting test after termination failure – Brazil 1983

: ACME MAX evening launch Ft. Sumner, NM 1993

: BEAST with solar panels – NASA 2000

: BEAST with solar panels – NASA 2000

: Flat plate 15 and 23 GHz experiment – White Mountain 1989

: Flat plate 15 and 23 GHz experiment – White Mountain 1989

: BEAST payload – night launch attempt – NASA Ft. Sumner, NM 1999

: BEAST payload – NASA Ft. Sumner, NM 1999

: South Pole Dec 1988

: Inside South Pole Station – Dec 1988 – food is stored outside the freezers, people live inside the freezers!

: Smoot and Lubin with U2 Anisotropy Experiment – Lima Peru 1978

: TMSS Detector 1981

: TMSS Brazil launch – Cauchera Paulista Nov 1983 – lost in Jungle subsequently

: TMSS Brazil launch – Cauchera Paulista Nov 1983 – lost in Jungle subsequently

: 1992 MAX launch NSBF Ft. Sumner, NM

: 1981 at NSBF in Palestine Texas – TMSS launch

: BEAST in Ft. Sumner 1999

: Brazil Recovery of TMSS 1985

: NASA Fort Sumner, NM Launch of ACME-MAX

: Beast Lab at WMRS

: View of WMRS Barcroft with the Old Dome in the background

: WMRS Barcroft Station

: Beast Project Launch

: Sunrise at WMRS Barcroft station

: The old dome and weather station at WMRS

: Old Research Dome at WMRS