HESS望远镜探索高能天空
(原标题: HESS Telescopes Explore the High-Energy Sky)
2023-09-06
浏览次数: 16
它们可能看起来像现代的机械恐龙，但它们是巨大的旋转眼睛，可以观察天空。高能立体系统（H.E.S.S.）天文台由四个12米反射镜望远镜组成，围绕着一个较大的望远镜，该望远镜装有一个28米反射镜。它们被设计用来探测奇怪的蓝光闪烁——切伦科夫辐射——当带电粒子在空气中以略高于光速的速度移动时发出。当来自遥远来源的伽马射线撞击地球大气中的分子并引发带电粒子阵雨时，就会发出这种光。H.E.S.S.对穿越宇宙的一些最高能量光子（TeV）很敏感。自2003年在纳米比亚开始运作以来，H.E.S.S.一直在寻找暗物质，并发现了50多个发射高能辐射源，包括超新星遗迹和含有超大质量黑洞的星系中心。这张照片拍摄于6月，H.E.S.S.望远镜在我们的银河系和麦哲伦星云前旋转并凝视着延时序列——偶尔有地球轨道卫星掠过。冲浪宇宙：随机APOD生成器
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They may look like modern mechanical dinosaurs, but they are enormous swiveling eyes that watch the sky. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Observatory is composed of four 12-meter reflecting-mirror telescopes surrounding a larger telescope housing a 28-meter mirror. They are designed to detect strange flickers of blue light -- Cherenkov radiation --emitted when charged particles move slightly faster than the speed of light in air. This light is emitted when a gamma ray from a distant source strikes a molecule in Earth's atmosphere and starts a charged-particle shower. H.E.S.S. is sensitive to some of the highest energy photons (TeV) crossing the universe. Operating since 2003 in Namibia, H.E.S.S. has searched for dark matter and has discovered over 50 sources emitting high energy radiation including supernova remnants and the centers of galaxies that contain supermassive black holes. Pictured in June, H.E.S.S. telescopes swivel and stare in time-lapse sequences shot in front of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds -- as the occasional Earth-orbiting satellite zips by. Surf the Universe: Random APOD Generator
© Jeff Dai (TWAN), H.E.S.S. Collaboration; Music: Ibaotu catalog number 1044988 (Used with permission)