Gamma ray telescope launched into space by NASA

William Atkins
Thursday, 12 June 2008 01:37

Science - Space

NASA successfully launches its Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope (GLAST) at 12:05 p.m. EDT (1605 GMT) on Wednesday, June 11, 2008.

GLAST was sent into space on top of a Delta 2 rocket from its launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, in Florida.

NASA reports that the only problem with the launch occurred when a long-range tracking error occurred. The problem delayed launch by about twenty minutes.

The twin-telescope observatory will eventually be placed in a 345-mile (555 kilometer) orbit about the Earth. Its two telescopes are designed to search the universe for gamma-rays, which are the most energetic part of the electromagnetic (EM) radiation spectrum.

The main telescope is called Large Area Telescope (LAT). It will be used by astronomers to perform an all-sky survey of such high-energy objects as dark matter, active galactic nuclei pulsars.

Its secondary telescope is the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM), which will be used to study gamma ray bursts, which are gigantic blasts of gamma rays in seemingly random locations and at seemingly random times.

Additional information about GLAST comes from the two iTWire articles “GLAST study of black holes set to launch June 3, 2008” and “NASA resets launch data for GLAST to 6.11.08.”

Just off of a press release from NASA, further information follows on the next page.