DETECTION AND IMAGING OF THE CRAB NEBULA WITH THE NUCLEAR COMPTON TELESCOPE

Journal Article · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/738/1/8· OSTI ID:21582996

Bandstra, M S; Bellm, E C; Boggs, S E; Perez-Becker, D; Zoglauer, A ^[1]; Chang, H -K; Chiu, J -L; Liang, J -S ^[2]; Chang, Y -H; Liu, Z -K; Hung, W -C ^[3]; Huang, M.-H. A. ^[4]; Chiang, S J ^[5]; Run, R -S ^[6]; Lin, C -H ^[7]; Amman, M; Luke, P N ^[8]; Jean, P; Von Ballmoos, P ^[9]

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1. Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan (China)
3. Department of Physics, National Central University, Taoyuan 32001, Taiwan (China)
4. Department of Energy Engineering, National United University, Miaoli 36003, Taiwan (China)
5. Department of Electrical Engineering, National United University, Miaoli 36003, Taiwan (China)
6. Department of Electronic Engineering, National United University, Miaoli 36003, Taiwan (China)
7. Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan (China)
8. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
9. Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements (CESR), 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4 (France)

The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT) is a balloon-borne Compton telescope designed for the study of astrophysical sources in the soft gamma-ray regime (200 keV-20 MeV). NCT's 10 high-purity germanium crossed-strip detectors measure the deposited energies and three-dimensional positions of gamma-ray interactions in the sensitive volume, and this information is used to restrict the initial photon to a circle on the sky using the Compton scatter technique. Thus NCT is able to perform spectroscopy, imaging, and polarization analysis on soft gamma-ray sources. NCT is one of the next generation of Compton telescopes-the so-called compact Compton telescopes (CCTs)-which can achieve effective areas comparable to the Imaging Compton Telescope's with an instrument that is a fraction of the size. The Crab Nebula was the primary target for the second flight of the NCT instrument, which occurred on 2009 May 17 and 18 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Analysis of 29.3 ks of data from the flight reveals an image of the Crab at a significance of 4{sigma}. This is the first reported detection of an astrophysical source by a CCT.

• OSTI ID: 21582996
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 738; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
CRAB NEBULA
DETECTION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
GAMMA DETECTION
GAMMA RADIATION
GE SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
HIGH-PURITY GE DETECTORS
INTERACTIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NEBULAE
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIATIONS
SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS