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Credit & Copyright: The HESS Collaboration
Explanation:
Most ground-based
telescopes
with lenses and mirrors are hindered by
the Earth's nurturing, protective
atmosphere that blurs images and
scatters and absorbs light.
But this telescope was designed to detect extreme
gamma rays - photons with
over 100 billion times the energy of visible
light - and actually requires the atmosphere to operate.
As the gamma rays impact
the upper atmosphere they produce air
showers of high-energy particles.
Adorned with 382 separate mirrors each
60 centimeters in diameter and equipped with a fast camera,
the telescope records in detail
the brief flashes of optical light, called
Cherenkov light,
created by the air shower particles.
The telescope pictured here was inaugurated this week and is
intended to operate as part of the
High
Energy Stereoscopic System
(HESS) array under construction in
Namibia.
The initial phase of HESS will consist of four
telescopes working in concert to provide
multiple stereoscopic views of the air showers, relating them to
the energies and directions of the incoming
cosmic gamma rays.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: gamma ray - telescope
Publications with words: gamma ray - telescope
See also: