CHIPS
Full Name: Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer
Phase: Past
Launch Date: January 12, 2003
Mission Project Home Page: http://chips.ssl.berkeley.edu/chips.html
The Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS) is a University-Class Explorer (UNEX) mission funded by NASA. It launched on January 12, 2003 and carryied out all-sky spectroscopy of the diffuse background at wavelengths from 90 to 260 Å with a peak resolution of /150 (about 0.5 eV). CHIPS data will help scientists determine the electron temperature, ionization conditions, and cooling mechanisms of the million-degree plasma believed to fill the local interstellar bubble.
Scientists believe that the million-degree gas in the “local bubble” is generated by supernovae and stellar winds from hot stars, but want to better understand the origins and cooling of this gas, and apply knowledge of these processes to the study of other galaxies beyond our Milky Way.
Diffuse million-degree plasma is ubiquitous in the Universe. Other than the dense gas in coronae and cataclysmic variables, however, no astrophysical plasma has been observed in the extreme ultraviolet band where the majority of the energy is expected to emerge. As a result, there is significant uncertainty as to the mechanisms by which hot interstellar plasma sheds its reservoir of thermal energy. Spectra from CHIPS will help us determine how the million-degree gas in the Local Bubble cools. These results will find important applications in interpreting X-ray observations of spiral galaxies, modeling of the global characteristics of the interstellar medium, and other areas of astrophysics.