National Radio Astronomy Observatory teams with NASA gamma-ray satellite (Forwarded)

Bob Naeye
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. June 5, 2007
301-286-4553

Dave Finley
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, N.M.
505-835-7302

RELEASE NO. 07-34

NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY TEAMS WITH NASA GAMMA-RAY SATELLITE

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is teaming with NASA's
upcoming Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) to allow
astronomers to use both the orbiting facility and ground-based radio
telescopes to maximize their scientific payoff. Under the new,
streamlined process, astronomers can compete for coordinated observing
time and support from both GLAST and NRAO's radio telescopes.

GLAST is scheduled for launch no earlier than December 14. It will
perform a survey of the entire sky at gamma-ray wavelengths every 3
hours using its primary instrument, the Large Area Telescope (LAT). NRAO
operates the Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro, N.M., the continent-wide
Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), and the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank
Telescope (GBT) in Green Bank, W.V. The NRAO is a research facility of
the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"Coordinated gamma-ray and radio observations of celestial objects will
greatly enhance the ability to fully understand those objects. Astronomy
today requires such multi-wavelength studies, and this agreement paves
the way for exciting, cutting-edge research," said Fred K.Y. Lo, NRAO
director.

GLAST will be vastly more capable than previous gamma-ray satellites,
and will carry the GLAST Burst Monitor, specifically designed to detect
gamma-ray bursts. GLAST observers will study objects such as active
galaxies, pulsars, and supernova remnants, which are also readily
studied with radio telescopes. By working together, NASA's GLAST mission
and NSF's NRAO facilities can study flares from blazars, a very compact
and highly variable energy source associated with a supermassive black
hole at the center of a host galaxy, over the widest possible range of
energies. This is crucial to understanding how black holes, notorious for
drawing in matter, can accelerate jets of material to nearly light speed.

"The gamma-ray and radio observations will show scientists different
aspects of many still-mysterious objects and processes. By providing a
simple procedure for astronomers to win observing time on radio
telescopes to follow up on our new gamma-ray discoveries, we're
ensuring that we get the maximum scientific return from both," said
GLAST project scientist Steve Ritz of NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The importance of this coordinated approach
has been highlighted by a recent two-day workshop at Goddard, in which
we discussed the scientific benefits and coordination of radio Very Long
Baseline Interferometry observations made in conjunction with GLAST."

NRAO's radio telescopes have been used for many years as part of
multiwavelength observing programs in conjunction with both ground-based
and space-based observatories. Usually, however, astronomers had to
submit separate observing proposals to two or more review committees,
with no guarantee that they would win observing time on all desired
telescopes.

Astronomers, including those on a recent NSF Senior Review panel, have
urged reductions in administrative barriers to gaining observing time at
multiple wavelengths. "This NRAO-GLAST agreement eases the process of
winning observing time on NRAO telescopes to complement the GLAST
all-sky gamma-ray survey. In particular, the continent-wide VLBA is the
only existing radio telescope that can image and monitor the sites of
extreme gamma-ray flares in distant galaxies," said Jim Ulvestad, NRAO's
Director for VLA-VLBA Operations. "We expect to see arrangements like
this become much more common in the future, to the benefit of the
science."

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the NSF,
operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

NASA's GLAST mission is an astrophysics and particle physics
partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of
Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions
and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the U.S.

For related images to this story, please visit on the Web:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/...agreement.html

For more information about the National Radio Astronomy Observatory,
visit:
http://www.nrao.edu

For more information about the GLAST mission, visit on the Web:
http://www.glast.nasa.gov