Peter Michelson (GLAST / Stanford University)

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope: First Light - Peter Michelson Colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, GLAST, was launched by NASA on June 11, 2008. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) instrument measures cosmic gamma-ray radiation in the energy range 20 MeV to >300 GeV, with supporting measurements by the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM) for gamma-ray bursts from 10 keV to 25 MeV. The LAT, with a factor of 40 or more improvement in sensitivity, large field-of-view, and much finer angular resolution compared to previous high-energy telescopes, is providing an important window on a wide variety of high-energy phenomena, including black holes and active galactic nuclei; gamma-ray bursts; the origin of cosmic rays and supernova remnants; and searches for hypothetical new phenomena such as supersymmetric dark-matter annihilations and exotic relics from the Big Bang. This talk will describe the GLAST observatory and provide an overview of the observations made to date.