Tweet
LARGEST EVER CHERENKOV TELESCOPE SEES FIRST LIGHT
States News Service
July 26, 2012 Thursday
The following information was released by the InterAction
Collaboration:
On 26 July 2012, the H.E.S.S. II telescope started operation
in Namibia. Dedicated to observing the most violent and extreme
phenomena of the Universe in very high energy gamma-rays, H.E.S.S. II
is the largest Cherenkov telescope ever built, with its 28-meter-sized
mirror. Together with the four smaller (12 meter) telescopes already in
operation since 2004, the H.E.S.S. ("High Energy Stereoscopic System")
observatory will continue to define the forefront of ground-based
gamma ray astronomy and will allow deeper understanding of known
high-energy cosmic sources such as supermassive black holes, pulsars
and supernovae, and the search for new classes of high-energy cosmic
sources.
With a mass of almost 600 tons and its 28-meter mirror - the area
of two tennis courts - the new arrival is just huge. This very large
telescope named H.E.S.S. II saw its first light at 0:43 a.m. (German
time zone) on 26 July 2012, detecting its very first images of
atmospheric particle cascades generated by cosmic gamma rays and
by cosmic rays, marking the next big step in exploring the Southern
sky at gamma-ray energies. "The new telescope not only provides the
largest mirror area among instruments of this type worldwide, but
also resolves the cascade images at unprecedented detail, with four
times more pixels per sky area compared to the smaller telescopes"
states Pascal Vincent from the French team responsible for the photo
sensor package at the focus of the mirror.
Gamma rays are believed to be produced by natural cosmic particle
accelerators such as supermassive black holes, supernovae, pulsars,
binary stars, and maybe even relics of the Big Bang. The universe
is filled with these natural cosmic accelerators, impelling charged
particles such as electrons and ions to energies far beyond what the
particle accelerators built by mankind can reach. As high-energy gamma
rays are secondary products of these cosmic acceleration processes,
gamma ray telescopes allow us to study these high-energy sources.
Today, well over one hundred cosmic sources of very high-energy
gamma rays are known. With H.E.S.S. II, processes in these objects
can be investigated in superior detail, also anticipating many new
sources, as well as new classes of sources. In particular, H.E.S.S. II
will explore the gamma ray sky at energies in the range of tens of
Giga-electronvolts - the poorly-explored transition regime between
space-based instruments and current ground-based telescopes, with a
huge discovery potential.
The most extreme gamma ray emitters - Active Galactic Nuclei - shine
in gamma rays with an apparent energy output which is one hundred
times the luminosity of the entire Milky Way, yet the radiation seems
to emerge from a volume much smaller than that of our Solar System,
and turns on and off in a matter of minutes, a strong signature
of supermassive black holes. For some of the objects seen with the
four H.E.S.S. telescopes in the last years, no counterpart at other
wavelengths is known; they may represent a new type of celestial object
that H.E.S.S. II will help to characterize. When gamma rays interact
high up in the atmosphere, they generate a cascade of secondary
particles that can be imaged by the telescopes on the ground and
recorded in their ultra-fast photo sensor 'cameras', thanks to the
emission known as Cherenkov radiation - a faint flash of blue light.
The high-tech camera of H.E.S.S. II is able to record this very
faint flash with an "exposure time" of a few billionths of a second,
almost a million times faster than a normal camera. The H.E.S.S. II
camera - with an area of the size of a garage door and a weight of
almost 3 tons - is "flying" 36 meters above the primary mirror in
the focal plane - at the height of a 20-story building when pointing
up. Despite its size, the new telescope will be able to slew twice
as fast as the smaller telescopes to immediately respond to fast and
transient phenomena such as gamma ray bursts anywhere in the sky.
The telescope structure and its drive system were designed by engineers
in Germany and South Africa, and produced in Namibia and Germany. The
875 hexagonal mirror facets which make up the huge reflector were
manufactured in Armenia, and individually characterized in Germany. The
mirror alignment system results from a cooperation of German and Polish
institutes. The camera, with its integrated electronics, was designed
and built in France. The construction of the new H.E.S.S. II telescope
was driven and financed largely by German and French institutions,
with significant contributions from Austria, Poland, South Africa
and Sweden.
"The successful commissioning of the new H.E.S.S. II telescope
represents a big step forward for the scientists of H.E.S.S., for
the astronomical community as a whole, and for Southern Africa as
a prime location for this field of astronomy" - so Werner Hofmann,
spokesperson of the project - "H.E.S.S. II also paves the way to
the realization of CTA - the Cherenkov Telescope Array-- the next
generation instrument ranked top priority by astroparticle physicists
and funding agencies in Europe".
The H.E.S.S. observatory has been operated for almost a decade by
the collaboration of more than 170 scientists, from 32 scientific
institutions and 12 different countries: Namibia and South Africa,
Germany, France, the UK, Ireland, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic,
Sweden, Armenia, and Australia. To date, the H.E.S.S. Collaboration
has published over 100 articles in high-impact scientific journals,
including the top-ranked 'Nature' and 'Science' journals.
H.E.S.S. was awarded in 2006 the Descartes Prize of the European
Commission - the highest recognition for collaborative research -
and in 2010 the prestigious Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical
Society. In a survey in 2006, H.E.S.S. was ranked the 10th most
influential observatory worldwide, joining the ranks with the Hubble
Space Telescope or the telescopes of the European Southern Observatory
ESO in Chile.
States News Service
July 26, 2012 Thursday
The following information was released by the InterAction
Collaboration:
On 26 July 2012, the H.E.S.S. II telescope started operation
in Namibia. Dedicated to observing the most violent and extreme
phenomena of the Universe in very high energy gamma-rays, H.E.S.S. II
is the largest Cherenkov telescope ever built, with its 28-meter-sized
mirror. Together with the four smaller (12 meter) telescopes already in
operation since 2004, the H.E.S.S. ("High Energy Stereoscopic System")
observatory will continue to define the forefront of ground-based
gamma ray astronomy and will allow deeper understanding of known
high-energy cosmic sources such as supermassive black holes, pulsars
and supernovae, and the search for new classes of high-energy cosmic
sources.
With a mass of almost 600 tons and its 28-meter mirror - the area
of two tennis courts - the new arrival is just huge. This very large
telescope named H.E.S.S. II saw its first light at 0:43 a.m. (German
time zone) on 26 July 2012, detecting its very first images of
atmospheric particle cascades generated by cosmic gamma rays and
by cosmic rays, marking the next big step in exploring the Southern
sky at gamma-ray energies. "The new telescope not only provides the
largest mirror area among instruments of this type worldwide, but
also resolves the cascade images at unprecedented detail, with four
times more pixels per sky area compared to the smaller telescopes"
states Pascal Vincent from the French team responsible for the photo
sensor package at the focus of the mirror.
Gamma rays are believed to be produced by natural cosmic particle
accelerators such as supermassive black holes, supernovae, pulsars,
binary stars, and maybe even relics of the Big Bang. The universe
is filled with these natural cosmic accelerators, impelling charged
particles such as electrons and ions to energies far beyond what the
particle accelerators built by mankind can reach. As high-energy gamma
rays are secondary products of these cosmic acceleration processes,
gamma ray telescopes allow us to study these high-energy sources.
Today, well over one hundred cosmic sources of very high-energy
gamma rays are known. With H.E.S.S. II, processes in these objects
can be investigated in superior detail, also anticipating many new
sources, as well as new classes of sources. In particular, H.E.S.S. II
will explore the gamma ray sky at energies in the range of tens of
Giga-electronvolts - the poorly-explored transition regime between
space-based instruments and current ground-based telescopes, with a
huge discovery potential.
The most extreme gamma ray emitters - Active Galactic Nuclei - shine
in gamma rays with an apparent energy output which is one hundred
times the luminosity of the entire Milky Way, yet the radiation seems
to emerge from a volume much smaller than that of our Solar System,
and turns on and off in a matter of minutes, a strong signature
of supermassive black holes. For some of the objects seen with the
four H.E.S.S. telescopes in the last years, no counterpart at other
wavelengths is known; they may represent a new type of celestial object
that H.E.S.S. II will help to characterize. When gamma rays interact
high up in the atmosphere, they generate a cascade of secondary
particles that can be imaged by the telescopes on the ground and
recorded in their ultra-fast photo sensor 'cameras', thanks to the
emission known as Cherenkov radiation - a faint flash of blue light.
The high-tech camera of H.E.S.S. II is able to record this very
faint flash with an "exposure time" of a few billionths of a second,
almost a million times faster than a normal camera. The H.E.S.S. II
camera - with an area of the size of a garage door and a weight of
almost 3 tons - is "flying" 36 meters above the primary mirror in
the focal plane - at the height of a 20-story building when pointing
up. Despite its size, the new telescope will be able to slew twice
as fast as the smaller telescopes to immediately respond to fast and
transient phenomena such as gamma ray bursts anywhere in the sky.
The telescope structure and its drive system were designed by engineers
in Germany and South Africa, and produced in Namibia and Germany. The
875 hexagonal mirror facets which make up the huge reflector were
manufactured in Armenia, and individually characterized in Germany. The
mirror alignment system results from a cooperation of German and Polish
institutes. The camera, with its integrated electronics, was designed
and built in France. The construction of the new H.E.S.S. II telescope
was driven and financed largely by German and French institutions,
with significant contributions from Austria, Poland, South Africa
and Sweden.
"The successful commissioning of the new H.E.S.S. II telescope
represents a big step forward for the scientists of H.E.S.S., for
the astronomical community as a whole, and for Southern Africa as
a prime location for this field of astronomy" - so Werner Hofmann,
spokesperson of the project - "H.E.S.S. II also paves the way to
the realization of CTA - the Cherenkov Telescope Array-- the next
generation instrument ranked top priority by astroparticle physicists
and funding agencies in Europe".
The H.E.S.S. observatory has been operated for almost a decade by
the collaboration of more than 170 scientists, from 32 scientific
institutions and 12 different countries: Namibia and South Africa,
Germany, France, the UK, Ireland, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic,
Sweden, Armenia, and Australia. To date, the H.E.S.S. Collaboration
has published over 100 articles in high-impact scientific journals,
including the top-ranked 'Nature' and 'Science' journals.
H.E.S.S. was awarded in 2006 the Descartes Prize of the European
Commission - the highest recognition for collaborative research -
and in 2010 the prestigious Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical
Society. In a survey in 2006, H.E.S.S. was ranked the 10th most
influential observatory worldwide, joining the ranks with the Hubble
Space Telescope or the telescopes of the European Southern Observatory
ESO in Chile.