GLAST
Recent results from the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) aboard the Compton Observatory have generated strong interest in space based high-energy (E{sub {gamma}} > 10 MeV) gamma ray astronomy. This science has wetted the authors` curiosity of what might be observed with an instrument having considerably more capability than EGRET, if such a device were practical in these fiscally difficult times. Advances in silicon technology over the past decade, and the resulting rapid drop in costs, encourage the development of a dramatically new type of high-energy gamma ray space telescope based on silicon strip technology. The GLAST team (GLAST stands for Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope) has been working for the past two years on the design of such an instrument, and the development of the silicon strip hardware and readout electronics needed to realize this design. As in previous high-energy instruments, GLAST is a pair spectrometer backed by a total absorption electro-magnetic shower counter. Measurement of the energy and direction of the induced electro-magnetic shower provides information about the energy and direction of the incident gamma-ray. However, due to the flexibility and relatively low cost of the silicon strip technology, the telescope has about a factor of 10 increase in effective area over EGRET, and about a factor of 5 increase in field of view. At the same time, the GLAST design is calculated to have much better point source sensitivity, and to have an energy range of 10 MeV < E{sub {gamma}} < 300 GeV. Due to the economics of silicon technology, along with weight, and size savings compared to gas based detector technology, the authors estimate that this instrument can be built and flown as a Delta II mission. Thus, GLAST would easily fit into the NASA intermediate category with an estimated total cost of about $200 million.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 29359
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-PUB-95-6738; CONF-9410308-1; ON: DE95008596; TRN: 95:008517
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Workshop on TeV gamma ray astrophysics, Heidelberg (Germany), 3-7 Oct 1994; Other Information: PBD: [1995]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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