- Nuclear Compton Telescope
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The Nuclear Compton Telescope is an experiment to detect particles in Earth's upper atmosphere. The module is launched by being suspended under a large high altitude balloon.
Contents
Background
Instrumentation
The Compton telescope uses an array of twelve 3D imaging high spectral–resolution Germanium detectors. This array is then mounted at the bottom of a structure made from an Aluminium framework covered with Bismuth germanate apart from the top. This ends up allowing the detectors to look in one direction only and the result gives an overall field of view (FOV) of 25% of the sky.
Flights
The module was successfully test flown on 1 June 2005 from the Scientific Balloon Flight Facility, Fort Sumner, New Mexico.[1][2]
Its subsequent missions went well and some useful data was collected[3]
Unfortunately it failed to launch in April 2010 at Alice Springs, Australia, when the balloon broke its tether to the crane in high winds.[4][5]
Data collected
See also
References
- ^ Zoglauer, Andreas; Boggs, SE. Bandstra, M. Bellm, E. Perez-Becker, D. Wunderer, CB. (9). "The Balloon Flights of the Nuclear Compton Telescope NCT" (PDF). Max Planck Institute. http://www.mpe.mpg.de/gamma/science/lines/workshops/AwRVI/Zoglauer_NCT_AwR08.pdf. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
- ^ "Details of the balloon and launch operations". Stratocat. http://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/2009/FSU-20090517.htm. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
- ^ Huang', Ming-Huey; Amman, M. Bandstra, ME. Bellm, E. et al. "The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT): a status report after 2009 balloon flight" (PDF). PROCEEDINGS OF THE 31st ICRC, ŁODZ 2009. Nuclear Compton Telescope team. http://www.srl.utu.fi/AuxDOC/kocharov/ICRC2009/pdf/icrc0952.pdf. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
- ^ Malkin, Bonnie (29). "Nasa space balloon crashes into car during takeoff" (Text and video). London: The Daily Telegraph (Telegraph.co.uk). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7649844/Nasa-space-balloon-crashes-into-car-during-takeoff.html. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
- ^ "NASA Balloon Suffers Mishap in Australia". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/balloon_mishap.html. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
External links
Categories:- Telescopes
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