Get Ready for High-Energy GLAST

By Nancy Atkinson - June 01, 2008 12:54 PM UTC | Physics

It's not hard to grab someone's attention when you mention the words "super massive black holes," "gamma ray bursts," "cosmic rays," and " dark matter." NASA's next space telescope will attempt to grab data about some of these high-energy objects in our universe to help us understand their mysteries. GLAST, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope will use its instruments to study those objects that generate gamma-ray radiation, the most energetic form of radiation we know of, billions of times more energetic than the type of light visible to our eyes. Liftoff for GLAST is set for Thursday, June 5, and the launch window extends from 11:45 a.m. to 1:40 p.m. EDT.

GLAST will reside in a circular, low Earth orbit of about 560 km ( 350 miles ). This orbit was chosen to minimize the effects of charged particles that surround Earth, and which would create additional unwanted background signals in the detectors. At that altitude, the observatory will circle Earth every 90 minutes. In sky-survey mode, GLAST will be able to view the entire sky in just two orbits, or about 3 hours.

The instruments on the GLAST mission are the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the GLAST Burst Monitor. Lat has a tracker for gamma-ray detection and direction measurement, and can also measure the energies of the rays. The GBM will have two types of scintillators mounted on the sides of the spacecraft to detect electromagnetic waves.

Phil over at Bad Astronomy has a couple of very nice (and fun)

videos

with info about GLAST (one starring Phil himself), but these are the major goals of GLAST:

• Explore the most extreme environments in the Universe, where nature harnesses energies far beyond anything possible on Earth. • Search for signs of new laws of physics and what composes the mysterious Dark Matter. • Explain how black holes accelerate immense jets of material to nearly light speed. • Help crack the mysteries of the stupendously powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. • Answer long-standing questions across a broad range of topics, including solar flares, pulsars and the origin of cosmic rays.

GLAST should provide some very interesting data about these spectacular and remarkable objects in our universe, and will create a full-sky map of gamma radiation.

Kapla GLAST!

Source:

GLAST site

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com