Cherenkov Telescope Array
(CTA, CTAO, Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory)
(ground gamma-ray telescope array in development)
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA,
or Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, CTAO)
is a Cherenkov gamma-ray telescope under construction that will
consist of two arrays of ground-based telescopes
for observation of gamma rays in the range of 20 GeV to 300 TeV.
One array is to be on the Atacama Desert in Chile (99 dishes,
near Paranal Observatory) and the other in Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) in the
Canary Islands (19 dishes).
Their aim is to spot high-energy gamma-ray photons by observing the
Cherenkov radiation they trigger in the upper atmosphere.
The method is indirect, but offers a much larger collecting area than
is practical with a space mission, which would be necessary to
directly detect the photons of interest.
The dishes are not all identical, different subsets covering different
bands:
LST | Large-Sized Telescope | 23-meter | lower photon energies |
MST | Medium-Sized Telescope | some 11.5-m, some 9.7-m | medium energies |
SST | Small-Sized Telescope | 4.3-meter | higher energies |
Prototype dishes for the various bands are in operation.
Some are to be Schwarzschild-Couder Telescopes (SCTs),
for which a 9.7-meter prototype (pSCT) has been constructed.
An LST prototype, LST1, is in operation at ORM.
(gamma rays,telescope,NRAO,ESO,ground,Canary Islands,Chile,construction,array,distributed)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_Telescope_Array
https://www.cta-observatory.org/
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019scta.book.....C/abstract
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023ApJ...956...80A/abstract
https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.07463
https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.12888
WaveL | Freq | Photon Energy | | |
4.2×10-21m | 73×1027Hz | 300TeV | begin | Cherenkov Telescope Array |
62×10-18m | 4.9YHz | 20GeV | end | Cherenkov Telescope Array |
|
Referenced by pages:
Atacama Desert
Cherenkov detector
gamma rays (GR)
High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS)
MAGIC
Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM)
Index