Science operations expected to start in August

Jun 12, 2008 07:43 GMT  ·  By
Image showing the GLAST Observatory launching into space atop a Delta II rocket
   Image showing the GLAST Observatory launching into space atop a Delta II rocket

One of the most expected launches of the year was carried out yesterday at approximately 12:05 pm EDT from NASA's Launch Complex 17-B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, with the help of a Delta II rocket. The newest high-energy gamma-ray space observatory GLAST was launched into space and inserted into Earth's orbit at an altitude of 550 kilometers. The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST for short, will have a primary mission of 5 years and will have the role of studying the high-energy universe. "We couldn't be happier", said Steven Ritz, project scientist for GLAST at NASA.

The GLAST telescope is the result of a collaboration between NASA and another five countries and cost 690 million US dollars to build. Basically, GLAST will continue the work started by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which ended its mission in 2000.

Its orbit will allow it to circle the Earth twice in three hours, thus observing a large area of the universe, comparable to that studied by Compton during a period of 15 months. Naturally, in order to do so its instruments needed to be much more sensitive than that of the Compton Observatory and at the same time provide a unique image of the high-energy universe.

"In a sense what GLAST is doing is giving us a chance to peek behind the curtain or look under the hood for how things are working, and it's only by doing this sort of exploration that we're able to learn these things. It's a form of scientific enlightenment", said Ritz in the days preceding the launch.

Because the upper atmosphere of the planet absorbs most of the gamma-ray emissions coming from all over the universe, observations of such high energies are usually conducted with the help of space telescopes. Gamma-ray radiation is generated by extremely massive objects, such as black holes for example, by accelerating subatomic particles at relativistic speeds and by violent explosions in the form of gamma-ray bursts. Studying such emissions can reveal much on the characteristics of the objects that created them, as well as help us understand more of the nature of dark matter, a form of energy believed to make up as much as 70 percent of the mass of the universe.

Gamma-ray emissions received by the instruments of the GLAST observatory will be converted into electron-positron pairs to make a rough estimation of the location of the source. From there on, researchers should be able to do the rest of the work. For every gamma-ray received, at least 100,000 particles of matter and antimatter should be created and it is estimated that about two gamma-rays will be detected every second. "We really have to find that needle in a haystack", Ritz added.

The first investigations conducted with GLAST are expected to begin in less than two months. Meanwhile, NASA is searching for an alternative name for the GLAST acronym.