A Space & astronomy forum. SpaceBanter.com

Go Back   Home » SpaceBanter.com forum » Space Science » News
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

High energy and far vision (Forwarded)



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old August 11th 08, 02:59 AM posted to sci.space.news
Andrew Yee[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,209
Default High energy and far vision (Forwarded)

Press and Public Relations Department
Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science
Munich, Germany

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Masahiro Teshima (Spokesperson of the MAGIC Collaboration)
Max Planck Institute for Physics, Mchen
Tel.: +49 89 32354-301

Dr. Razmik Mirzoyan (Chairman of the MAGIC Collaboration Board)
Max Planck Institute for Physics, Mchen
Tel.: +49 89 32354-328

Dr. Robert Wagner
Max Planck Institute for Physics, Mchen
Tel.: +49 89 32354-227

June 26th, 2008

News SP / 2008 (138)

High energy and far vision

With a 17-m diameter mirror the MAGIC telescope is the largest stand-alone
gamma-ray telescope. MAGIC has discovered the most distant very-high energy
gamma-ray emission.

Using the MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov) telescope on
the Canary island of La Palma, scientists of the Max Planck Institute for
Physics in Munich have succeeded in detecting very-high energy gamma rays
from a source more than double as distant as any previously known gamma-ray
source.

Together with their colleagues of the MAGIC collaboration, the scientists
discovered very high energy gamma rays from "3C 279", the active nucleus of
a distant galaxy. 3C 279 is more than five billion light years away --
roughly half the radius of the Universe. (Science June 27, 2008)

3C279 is a prominent member of the class of active galactic nuclei (AGNs)
containing super-massive black holes, typically a billion times more massive
than our own Sun, powered by accreting matter from surrounding stars or gas.
AGNs emit radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum from radio
wavelengths to very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays. Whereas most of the
emission can travel through the Universe without being absorbed, the flux of
VHE gamma rays is attenuated by pair-production in interactions with low
energy photons of the extragalactic background light (EBL). The EBL
comprises the history of all light produced by stars and galaxies in the
Universe and is, therefore, of great interest as a record of cosmological
structure formation. The detection of VHE gamma-ray emission from a source
at such a distance as 3C279 constrains current theories about the density of
the EBL. The Universe appears more transparent at cosmological distances
than believed, precluding significant contributions from light other than
from sources observed by current optical and infrared telescopes.

The MAGIC result confirms once more the rich potential of gamma-ray
observations to open new avenues in astronomy. Gamma rays constitute the
highest-energy electromagnetic radiation observable, and are generated by
the most violent cosmic objects such as supernovae, active galactic nuclei,
and gamma ray bursts. They allow us to zoom into a realm of extreme physical
conditions, far beyond what can be studied in terrestrial laboratories.
Gamma rays are of great importance as messengers in modern astroparticle
physics and astronomy: they provide precious information about the processes
that generated them, without deflections by magnetic fields that affect all
charged cosmic rays. Since such particles travel for distances comparable
with the radius of the Universe, they also give important information on
fundamental physics and cosmology, in particular about the evolution of the
Universe.

MAGIC is located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, on the Canary
island of La Palma. It detects gamma rays through short light flashes that
are produced when gamma rays cross the atmosphere (Cherenkov light). A
second MAGIC telescope (MAGIC-II) is under construction close to the first,
and will be inaugurated in September 2008.

MAGIC-I was built and is operated by a large international collaboration,
currently including about 150 researchers from Germany, Italy, Spain,
Switzerland, Poland, Finland, Bulgaria and the United States.

Related links:

[1] The Magic Telescope
http://wwwmagic.mppmu.mpg.de/

Original work:

J. Albert et al.
Very high energy gamma rays from a distant Quasar: How transparent is the
Universe?
Science, June 27, 2008

IMAGE CAPTIONS:

[Fig. 1:
http://www.mpg.de/bilderBerichteDoku.../Web_Zoom.jpeg
(115KB)]
Shortly after sunset, the MAGIC telescope is getting ready for the next
observation night.

Image: R. Wagner, Max Planck Institute for Physics

[Fig. 2:
http://www.mpg.de/bilderBerichteDoku.../Web_Zoom.jpeg
(154KB)]
Sky Map of 3C279 in Very-High Energy photons as seen by the MAGIC (Major
Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov) telescope. The active galactic
nucleus, from which these photons originated, is a quasar which is more than
five billion light years from the Earth. The detection of very-high energy
gamma emission by a source at such a distance challenges current theories
about the intergalactic medium, which appears more transparent than
previously believed.

Image: MAGIC Collaboration
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Discovery of a new type of very-high-energy gamma ray emitter (Forwarded) Andrew Yee News 0 February 7th 07 04:25 AM
Discovery of a new type of very-high-energy gamma ray emitter(Forwarded) Andrew Yee Astronomy Misc 0 February 7th 07 04:22 AM
High energy gamma rays may emanate in the Milky Way (Forwarded) Andrew Yee Astronomy Misc 0 December 21st 05 11:12 PM
High energy gamma rays may emanate in the Milky Way (Forwarded) Andrew Yee News 0 December 21st 05 10:43 PM
Excitement in high energy physics, really high energy Joe Fischer Astronomy Misc 26 December 16th 05 06:00 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 12:19 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 SpaceBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.