Gamma-ray imaging observations of the Crab and Cygnus regions

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:6995967

McConnell, M L

This dissertation presents the results from a balloon-borne experiment, referred to as the Directional Gamma-Ray Telescope (DGT), which is designed to image celestial gamma rays over the energy range 160 keV to 9.3 MeV. It utilizes a technique know as coded aperture imaging in order to obtain spatially resolved images of the sky with an angular resolution of 3.8/sup 0/. This detector is the first flight-ready instrument of this type operating at energies above 160 keV. The first successful balloon flight of this instrument took place on 1984 October 1-2. During the thirty hours in which the payload remained at float altitude, imaging observations of a number of sky regions were obtained, including observations of the Crab and Cygnus regions. The Crab Nebulapulsar was observed to have a featureless power-law spectrum, consistent with previous measurements. Emission from Cyg X-1 was observed up to approx. 10 MeV. At energies below 1 MeV, the data are consistent with a single-temperature inverse Compton model, with an electron temperature, kT/sub c/, of approx. 80 keV and an optical depth, r, of approx. 2.0.

• Research Organization: New Hampshire Univ., Durham (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6995967
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640102* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ASTRONOMY
COSMIC GAMMA SOURCES
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
CRAB NEBULA
ENERGY RANGE
GAMMA ASTRONOMY
KEV RANGE
KEV RANGE 100-1000
MEV RANGE
MEV RANGE 01-10
NEBULAE
PULSARS
STAR CLUSTERS
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS