Astrophysics (Index)About

Orbiting Wide-angle Light Collectors

(OWL)
(space mission concept to detect cosmic rays through Earth atmosphere light flashes)

Orbiting Wide-angle Light Collectors (OWL) is a conceptual space mission that would place two spacecraft in Earth orbit with Schmidt cameras to catch short visible light flashes in Earth atmosphere that indicate reception of UHE cosmic rays. It would use two such spacecraft for stereo observation, to assist in determining the direction of the incoming particle.

A similar plan is POEMMA, apparently a later name adopted as the project progressed.


Note that the abbreviation OWL was also used for the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope concept.


(plan,telescopes,space,NASA,cosmic rays)
Further reading:
https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/owl/
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ICRC...33.2334K/abstract
https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/owl/owl_booklet.pdf

Referenced by page:
POEMMA

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