Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
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| Image:Cartoon CGRO.jpg | |
| Artist's Illustration of CGRO in orbit (credit: NASA) | |
| Organization | NASA |
| Wavelength regime | gamma ray |
| Orbit Height | 450 km |
| Orbit period | 90 min |
| Launch date | 5 April 1991 |
| Deorbit date | 4 June 2000 |
| Mass | 17000 kg |
| Webpage | http://cossc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ |
| Physical Characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Telescope Style | scintillation detectors |
| Diameter | N/A |
| Collecting Area | varied by instrument |
| Effective Focal Length | N/A |
| Instruments | |
| BATSE | all-sky monitor |
| OSSE | pointed detectors |
| COMPTEL | imaging telescope |
| EGRET | wide field telescope |
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was the second of the NASA "Great Observatories" to be launched to space, following the Hubble Space Telescope. CGRO was named after Dr. Arthur Compton, Nobel prize winner for work involved with gamma ray physics. The observatory was launched on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, mission STS-37, on 5 April 1991. It was deployed in low earth orbit at 450 km in order to avoid the Van Allen radiation belt. It was the heaviest astrophysical payload ever flown at that time at 17000 kg.
The CGRO is part of NASA's Great Observatories series, with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. [1]
Contents |
Instruments
CGRO carried a complement of four instruments that covered an unprecedented six decades of the electromagnetic spectrum, from 20 kev to 30 GeV. In order of increasing spectral energy coverage:
- Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center searched the sky for short duration gamma ray bursts (20 to 600 keV) and conducted full sky surveys for long-lived sources. It consisted of 8 detectors, one at each of the satellite's corners (top and bottom). Each detector consisted of both a Large Area Detector and a Spectroscopy Detector.
- Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (OSSE) by the Naval Research Laboratory detected gamma rays entering the field of view of any of four detectors, which could be pointed individually, in the 0.05 to 10 MeV range. The four detectors were arranged in pairs of two. During a gamma ray burst event, one detector would take observations of the source, while the other would slew slightly off souce to measure the background levels. The two detectors would routinely switch roles, allowing for more accurate measurements of both the source and background. The instruments could slew with a speed of approximately 2 degrees per second.
- Imaging Compton Telescope (COMPTEL) by Max Planck Institute and the University of New Hampshire was tuned to the 1-30 MeV energy range and determined the angle of arrival of photons to within a degree and the energy to within five percent at higher energies. The instrument had a field of view of one steradian.
- Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) measured high energy (20 MeV to 30 GeV) gamma ray source positions to a fraction of a degree and photon energy to within 15 percent. EGRET was developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Max Planck Institute, and Stanford University.
Results
Basic Results
- The EGRET instrument conducted the first all sky survey above 100 MeV. Using four years of data it discovered 271 sources, 170 of which were unidentified.
- The COMPTEL insturment completed an all sky map of 26Al.
- The OSSE instrument completed the most comprehensive survey of the galactic center, and discovered a possible antimatter "cloud" above the center.
- The BATSE instrument averaged one gamma ray burst event detection per day for a total of approximately 2000 detections.
- The discovery of the first four soft gamma ray repeaters. These sources were relatively weak, mostly below 100 keV and had unpredictable periods of activity and inactivity.
- The separation of GRBs into two time profiles: short duration GRBs that last less than 2 seconds, and long duration GRBs that last longer than this.
GRB 990123
Template:Main Gamma ray burst 990123 (January 23, 1999) was one of the brightest bursts recorded at the time, and was the first GRB with an observed optical afterglow. This allowed astronomers to measure a redshift of 1.6 and a distance of 4.5 Gpc. This was incredibly important to astronomers as it proved concusively that GRBs occured outside of the Milky Way. This effectively ended the debate between those who believed the observed GRBs were local to our galaxy versus though who believed that they were extra-galactic.
Miscellaneous Results
- The completion of both a pulsar survey and a supernova remnant survey.
- The discovery of terrestrial gamma ray sources in 1994 that come from thunderclouds.
De-orbit
After one of its gyros failed, the observatory was deliberately de-orbited. At the time the observatory was still operational, however the failure of another gyro would make de-orbiting much more difficult and dangerous. NASA decided with some controversy that a controlled crash was preferable in the interest of public safety, to letting the craft come down on its own. It entered the Earth's atmosphere on 4 June 2000, with debris falling harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean.
See also
External links
es:Observatorio de Rayos Gamma Compton fr:Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory pl:Teleskop kosmiczny Comptona pt:Observatório de raios Gama Compton