Table of Contents
- 1 What does Compton gamma-ray do?
- 2 How are gamma rays used to study the universe?
- 3 How does the Compton Gamma Ray telescope work?
- 4 Where did NASA put the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory when its mission ended?
- 5 What was the purpose of the Compton Gamma ray Observatory?
- 6 Where did the gamma ray bursts come from?
What does Compton gamma-ray do?
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) is a sophisticated satellite observatory dedicated to observing the high-energy Universe. It is the second in NASA’s program of orbiting “Great Observatories”, following the Hubble Space Telescope.
What is the Compton telescope used for?
A Compton telescope (also known as Compton camera or Compton imager) is a gamma-ray detector which utilizes Compton scattering to determine the origin of the observed gamma rays.
Can the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory detect black holes?
So far, Compton has probed the nature of solar flares, gamma ray bursts, black holes and quasars.
How are gamma rays used to study the universe?
These are produced by spectacular events in the Universe such as stars exploding, matter falling into black holes and celestial objects colliding. By collecting gamma rays, astronomers are able to see these violent events and can judge exactly how they shape the Universe.
How does the Compton gamma-ray telescope work?
Since gamma rays have so much energy, they pass right through the mirror of a standard optical telescope. Instead, gamma rays are detected by the optical flashes they produce when interacting with the material in a specially designed instrument such as a scintillation detector.
How did observations with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory show that gamma ray bursts?
How did observations with the Compton Gamma- ray Observatory show that gamma-ray bursts were not coming from the Milky Way Galaxy? When the core of a star reaches a temperature of about 100 million K, something new happens in the core.
How does the Compton Gamma Ray telescope work?
How does the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory work?
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was a space observatory detecting photons with energies from 20 keV to 30 GeV, in Earth orbit from 1991 to 2000. The observatory featured four main telescopes in one spacecraft, covering X-rays and gamma rays, including various specialized sub-instruments and detectors.
Where did NASA put the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory?
Following 14 years of effort, the observatory was launched from Space Shuttle Atlantis during STS-37 on April 5, 1991, and operated until its deorbit on June 4, 2000. It was deployed in low Earth orbit at 450 km (280 mi) to avoid the Van Allen radiation belt.
Where did NASA put the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory when its mission ended?
After a long and active career in space, CGRO ultimately lost a gyro, and the telescope was deliberately and safely de-orbited. It re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere in June of 2000, where it landed in the Pacific Ocean. Fun fact – this was NASA’s first intentional controlled de-orbit of a satellite.
How was gamma rays discovered?
It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves and so imparts the highest photon energy. Paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma radiation in 1900 while studying radiation emitted by radium.
How did scientists first detect gamma rays?
Long before experiments could detect gamma rays emitted by cosmic sources, scientists had known that the Universe should be producing such high energy photons. The first detection of significant gamma-ray emission from our galaxy was made in 1967 by the the gamma-ray detector aboard the OSO-3 satellite.
What was the purpose of the Compton Gamma ray Observatory?
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory ( GRO) was a sophisticated satellite observatory dedicated to observing the high-energy Universe. It was the second in NASA ’s program of orbiting “Great Observatories”, following the Hubble Space Telescope.
Are there any space telescopes still looking at gamma rays?
The Spitzer Space Telescope is going on 13 years of infrared observations. The Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched in 1999 by the Space Shuttle Columbia, is still looking at X-rays. And then there is the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), which also just passed the 25th anniversary of its launch.
What was the purpose of the Compton Space Telescope?
It was the second in NASA ’s program of orbiting “Great Observatories”, following the Hubble Space Telescope. While Hubble’s instruments operate at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths, Compton carried a collection of four instruments which together could detect an unprecedented broad range of high-energy radiation called gamma rays.
Where did the gamma ray bursts come from?
The first was the finding by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) that the mysterious gamma-ray bursts were coming uniformly from all directions in the sky, implying that they were probably from very distant sources.