Glast^H^H^H^H^H Fermi

ToSeek · #1 (**permalink**) 19-May-2006, 06:04 PM

Space Telescope Leaves SLAC for Washington D.C.

Quote:

The pioneering space telescope recently assembled at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) has taken a continent-sized step in its journey toward launch. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) arrived safely on Sunday, May 14, at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C., after a 3,000-mile trip from Menlo Park, California, in a special atmospherically-controlled truck.

LAT is the primary instrument for the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission to detect gamma rays, the most energetic particles of light in the universe. Physicists and astronomers expect that this unprecedented look at the gamma-ray sky will reveal vital information about the nature of dark matter, the evolution of stars, and the accelerating powers of supermassive black holes.

antoniseb · #2 (**permalink**) 21-May-2006, 10:42 PM

Glast will be a valuable addition to the fleet.

ToSeek · #3 (**permalink**) 09-August-2006, 09:16 PM

Gamma-ray probe a step closer to launch

Quote:

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope is another step closer to its September 2007 launch. Engineers aim to begin installing the first piece of one science instrument, the GLAST Burst Monitor, later this week in Scottsdale, Arizona, US.

GLAST will study gamma ray bursts (GRBs) – enormous explosions of energy caused by the merger of two neutron stars or the collapse of a massive star.

"What GLAST will do is open up a new window in the high energy range," says Charles Meegan, principal investigator of the GLAST Burst Monitor at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, US.

The instrument will measure from thousands of electron volts up to 20 million electron volts. This region of the spectrum has been observed by other spacecraft. GLAST's primary instrument, the Large Area Telescope (LAT), will measure from that point up to tens of billions of electron volts. This will be the widest range of measurement yet available on a spacecraft devoted to gamma rays.

turbo-1 · #4 (**permalink**) 09-August-2006, 09:32 PM

Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara has postulated that GLAST might demonstrate the fine-scale structure of space, by observing wavelength-dependent time delays in the arrival of EM. I happen to share her view and eagerly await the science from this instrument.

ToSeek · #5 (**permalink**) 22-September-2006, 04:32 PM

GLAST telescope ready to mount

Quote:

Cool high-energy astronomy news: the Large Area Telescope (or LAT), the main instrument for the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is ready to be mounted on the spacecraft. GLAST is a joint NASA/Department of Energy mission due to launch next year, and will observe super-high-energy explosions and other titanically energetic events like galaxy collisions and black holes gobbling down matter.

antoniseb · #6 (**permalink**) 22-September-2006, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbo-1

Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara has postulated that GLAST might demonstrate the fine-scale structure of space, by observing wavelength-dependent time delays in the arrival of EM.

I'm not so confident that GLAST will be able to show this effect. It will be able to detect up to 100 to 300 GeV, which I think is too low an energy to show the effect from even the short GRB sources.

Launch window · #7 (**permalink**) 01-October-2006, 05:36 AM

It will launch on October 2007 using Boeing's Delta II

ToSeek · #8 (**permalink**) 23-January-2007, 11:30 PM

What Will GLAST Tell Us?

Quote:

The identity of dark matter—the mysterious stuff that makes up a quarter of the universe—continues to elude scientists, even decades after they first inferred its existence. The leading candidate that might explain the fundamental make-up of dark matter is a hypothetical particle called the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP). Soon, with the Gamma-Ray Large Area Telescope (GLAST) built in part at SLAC and scheduled for launch in August of 2007, scientists may finally find clear evidence that dark matter is indeed made of WIMPs.

01101001 · #9 (**permalink**) 24-January-2007, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToSeek

What Will GLAST Tell Us?

Glast? Never heard of it. They need some kind of public outreach person to educate us!

Kidding. Glast is famous. It even has its own MySpace page.

NEOWatcher · #10 (**permalink**) 24-January-2007, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

...Kidding. Glast is famous. It even has its own MySpace page.

Does Phil go without a shirt often? He does look kinda pale here.

01101001 · #11 (**permalink**) 24-January-2007, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NEOWatcher

Does Phil go without a shirt often? He does look kinda pale here.

Only solar astronomers have tans.

But that image is probably Photoshop'd to highlight his lime-green geekiness.

Launch window · #12 (**permalink**) 25-January-2007, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

Glast? Never heard of it. They need some kind of public outreach person to educate us!

Kidding. Glast is famous. It even has its own MySpace page.

Wow, and Weird Al Yankovic as one of it's friends, I'm jealous

peteshimmon · #13 (**permalink**) 25-January-2007, 10:52 PM

Blast GLAST fast tasked to grasp the past
vastness at last......sorry

ToSeek · #14 (**permalink**) 12-April-2007, 07:45 PM

NASA's GLAST Mission One Step Closer to Launch

Quote:

NASA's next major space observatory, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), is one step closer to unveiling the mysteries of the high-energy universe. Almost all the components have been assembled onto the spacecraft, which will undergo a review this week before environmental testing begins at the primary contractor, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Gilbert, Ariz.

ToSeek · #15 (**permalink**) 30-April-2007, 08:30 PM

Dark mappers take a gamma-ray view

Quote:

Take away all the known sources of gamma rays in the universe, and you might be left with the above picture - something a new NASA probe could soon see. If it does, astronomers will be elated because they will have finally "seen" dark matter.

Our galaxy is thought to be surrounded by a halo of dark matter, but what it consists of is unclear. One of the favoured candidates is a particle called the neutralino. If neutralinos exist, they should interact with each other to produce gamma rays.

In December, NASA will launch the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), which could in theory detect gamma rays coming from the annihilation of neutralinos.

Unfortunately, the referenced image is not included with the online version of the article.

Christopher Ferro · #16 (**permalink**) 30-April-2007, 08:37 PM

I didn't see the referenced image or a link to it in the text.

CJSF

ToSeek · #17 (**permalink**) 29-January-2008, 04:25 PM

The most powerful explosions in the Universe

Quote:

In May, NASA will launch the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (pictured above in a General Dynamics clean room), designed to pinpoint the location of about 50 gamma ray bursts a year and measure them in different wavelengths. By studying them, scientists hope to learn more about the universe’s physics and its history.

ToSeek · #18 (**permalink**) 08-February-2008, 04:16 PM

Name a telescope in 25 words or less

Quote:

NASA announced today the opportunity to suggest a name for the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope.

The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2008.
The name should capture the excitement of GLAST's mission, bringing attention to gamma rays and high-energy astronomy.
The name should be catchy, something that people will talk about. Make it simple and easy to say. Nothing says complex and inaccessible like a mouthful of acronyms.
In keeping with NASA tradition, the satellite will not be named after a person who is still living.
Finally, the name must be original and not associated with any past, present or future astronomical observatory or space mission (domestic or international) or any NASA program. Sorry, Voyager fans!

antoniseb · #19 (**permalink**) 08-February-2008, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Make it simple and easy to say

Maybe something like "The Big Box".
Or perhaps (given that it is looking at explosions, and Nobel invented dynamite)
"Alfred Nobel Gamma Ray Yacht" or ANGRY

I am looking forward to the results of this mission, and these are not serious entries.

Swift · #20 (**permalink**) 08-February-2008, 04:59 PM

What's wrong with GLAST? Why does it need another name?