High Energy Astronomy

1st High Energy Astrophysics Observatory ( HEAO 1. GSFC. NASA )

The first of NASA's three High Energy Astronomy Observatories, HEAO 1 was launched aboard an Atlas Centaur rocket on 12 August 1977 and operated until 9 January 1979. During that time, it scanned the X-ray sky almost three times over 0.2 keV - 10 MeV, provided nearly constant monitoring of X-ray sources near the ecliptic poles, as well as more detailed studies of a number of objects through pointed observations.

2nd High Energy Astrophysics Observatory ( HEAO 2, renamed Einstein. GSFC. NASA )

The second High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO-B) was launched into an approximate 100-min low Earth orbit on 13 November 1978. Renamed the Einstein Observatory, it operated (with one significant interruption) until April 1981 and made over 5,000 targeted observations.

All-sky Low Energy Gamma Ray Observatory ( ALEGRO )

ALLEGRO is a proposed MidEx class instrument providing all-sky monitoring of low-energy gamma-rays at unprecedented sensitivity. Unlike previous hard X-ray experiments, there is no time-averaging, data-selection, or triggering on-board: ALLEGRO transmits all events, time-tagged to 1/8th ms and with full energy information. This produces a database of uniformly high resolution in both energy and time, permitting non-triggered, unbiased detection of transient and pulsed events.

Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array ( AMANDA )

Astrophysics and Radiation Measurements Group

The interests in astrophysics of the Astrophysics and Radiation Measurements Group (NIS-2) focus on gamma-ray bursts, x-ray binaries, accretion- and rotation-powered pulsars, neutron star dynamics, atomic processes in astrophysical sources, soft x-ray and EUV backgrounds, and EUV and soft x-ray transients such as flare stars. An important mission of the group is to develop new types of optical, ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma-ray detectors for ground and space applications. The group has flown high-energy instruments on Pioneer Venus Orbiter, the ISEE-3 (ICE), P78-1, Vela satellites, and the Japanese satellite Ginga. The group is currently developing experiments for several scientific missions including the X-ray Multimirror Mission (XMM), High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE), MARS-96, and the MOXE all sky x-ray monitor on the Russian Spectrum X-Gamma satellite project, and is the lead institution operating the Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors (ALEXIS) satellite and its wide field-of-view ultrasoft x-ray telescope array. The group is actively participating in Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) research through several guest investigator projects, and is also involved in establishing the growing-up Fenton Hill Observatory in the Jemez mountains, which includes an ultra-high-energy gamma-ray telescope, Milagro.

Broad Band X-ray Telescope ( BBXRT. GSFC. NASA )

The Broad Band X-ray Telescope (BBXRT) was flown on the space shuttle Columbia (STS-35) on 1990 December 2-December 11, as part of the ASTRO-1 payload. The flight of BBXRT marked the first opportunity for performing X-ray observations over a broad energy range (0.3-12 keV) with a moderate energy resolution (typically 90 eV and 150 eV at 1 and 6 keV, respectively).

Chicago Air Shower Array

The Chicago Air Shower Array (CASA) is a very large array of scintillation counters located in Utah, fifty miles southwest of Salt Lake City. CASA has been operating since 1992 in coincidence with a second array, the Michigan Anti (MIA), is made of 2500 square meters of buried muon detectors. CASA is the most sensitive experiment built to date in the study of gamma-ray and cosmic ray interactions at energies above 100 TeV (10^14 electron-Volts). Research topics on data from this experiment cover a wide variety of physics issues, including the search for gamma-rays from extragalactic sources (quasars and gamma-ray bursts), the study of diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Galactic plane, and a measurement of the cosmic ray composition in the poorly understood region from 100 to 100,000 TeV.

CHORUS

CLOUDY - Photoionization Simulation code ( CLOUDY )

Cloudy is a large-scale Fortran code designed to simulate physical conditions in a broad range of astronomical plasmas, and predict its resulting spectrum. The Cloudy homepage provides pointers to the code and its documentation, along with related publications and activities.

Coded Aperture Imaging in High-Energy Astronomy

Information about coded aperture imaging as applied in X- and gamma-ray astronomy: - introduction to the principle - specific details about instruments of the past, present and proposed future - bibliography.

Collaboration between Australia and Nippon for a Gamma Ray Observatory in the Outback ( CANGAROO )

The project uses two gamma ray telescopes at a dark site 15 km from Woomera, a small town 500 km north of Adelaide.

Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory ( CGRO. GSFC. NASA )

The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory is the second of NASA's Great Observatories. Compton, at 17 tons, the heaviest astrophysical payload ever flown, was launched on April 5, 1991 aboard the space shuttle Atlantis. Compton has four instruments that cover an unprecedented six decades of the electromagnetic spectrum, from 30 keV to 30 GeV

Deep Undersea Muon and Neutrino Detection ( DUMAND )

Directory tree of information about the DUMAND project, designed to serve the needs of the experimenters, as well as to make information about DUMAND progress available to the broader scientific public.

Fred Lawrence Whipple Gamma-Ray Telescopes ( Tucson, Ariz )

Gamma-Ray Astronomy with COMPTEL ( MPE Garching )

Local project documentation and utilities as well as collaboration-wide information sources are maintained by the MPE COMPTEL people for: COMPTEL Data Reduction Group work: documents, scientific results and utilities used by the data analysts, the processing team and the scientists. COMPASS software system work : technical and management documents, used and maintained by the MPE software team. the local computing environment : documents on system configuration, maintained by the MPE/RZG software team. MPE - COMPTEL People Matters: the weekly activity list individual 'home pages'

High Energy Astrophysics at CASS

High Energy Astrophysics Division ( SAO )

The Division's main focus is on X-ray astronomy via observations of high-energy sources with instruments aboard satellites, rockets, and the Space Shuttle; and development of new instrumentation for future space missions to address the processes involved in generating x-rays, the amount of matter in the universe, and the origin, evolution, and the ultimate fate of the universe. The AXAF Science Center The AXAF HRC project The AXAF Mission Support Team The ROSAT Science Data Center The PROS/XRAY Data Analysis Software The Einstein Data Center The Spectrum-X Gamma Coordination Facility The Solar and Stellar X-ray Group The Astrophysics Data System Project The Einline Database Service The SIMBAD Database Service The Quasar Energy Distribution Team The Supernova Remnant Group The Energetic X-Ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) The Large Area X-Ray Spectroscopy Mission (LAXSM) Galaxy Clusters at the Center for Astrophysics Multiwavelength Atlas of Galaxies The Everyday Classroom Tools Project The SAO Summer Intern Program Science Education and Outreach HEAD Lunch Talks Preprints of HEAD papers

High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center ( HEASARC )

The High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, HEASARC, was created by NASA in 1990 as a site for X-ray and Gamma-ray archive research. The motivation for the HEASARC is to provide a multi-mission archive for the high energy data from ROSAT, GRO,BBXRT, ASCA, and XTE missions, that coexists with the archivial data from past missions such as Einstein, HEAO 1, HEAO 3, OSO 8, SAS 2 and 3, Uhuru, and Vela5B. Data from non-US missions, eg, EXOSAT and Ginga, also is provided as international agreements allow. The total data volume will be of the order of 1 Terabyte by 1995. These data are available on-line for immediate access. For on-line access, telnet to xray@legacy.gsfc.nasa.govand log in as XRAY. The HEASARC is located at the Goddard Space Flight Center and is a collaboration between Goddard's Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, LHEA, and the NSSDC. The LHEA is responsible for the science content of the archive, the NSSDC is responsible for the data archive managment. The HEASARC data holding will consist of data from past, current, and future missions.

High Energy X-ray Timing Experiment

The HEXTE is one of 3 instruments on board the X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE), which is scheduled for launch in 1995 October. It is sensitive to X-rays from 15 to 250 keV and can provide timing information down to 8 microseconds.

High Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray Detector ( HiRes )

The HiRes detector - an atmospheric fluorescence detector: HiRes currently consists of two sites on top of two mountains seperated by 13km in western Utah. At present it consists of a 14 mirror prototype at the first site and a 4 mirror site at the second site. Construction is under way to built two full eyes which should be finnished by the end of 1996

Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso ( INFN, Italy )

Underground laboratory for Particle Physics and Astrophysics. The server includes information about the experiments:

• BOREX
• EAS-TOP
• GALLEX
• LVD
• MACRO

MOnitoring X-ray Experiment ( MOXE )

The MOnitoring X-ray Experiment (MOXE) is an X-ray all-sky monitor to be launched on the Russian Spectrum-X-Gamma satellite in 1996. It will monitor several hundred X-ray sources on a daily basis, and will be the first instrument to monitor the complete X-ray sky simultaneously. MOXE is built by Los Alamos Nat Lab, Goddard Space Flight Center and Space Research Institute (Moscow).

Multiwavelength Atlas of Galaxies

A Multiwavelength Atlas of Galaxies is presented as an educational tool for high school students. Optical, X-ray, Far-Infrared and Radio images are shown for a variety of nearby galaxies. Text describing the physical mechanisms of the different types of radiation, and their astronomical sources is supplied.

Neutrino Oscillation MAgnetic Detector ( NOMAD )

Nomad (Neutrino Oscillation MAgnetic Detector) is CERN experiment WA96. The experiment searches for the oscillation nu_mu -> nu_tau in the CERN wide-band neutrino beam. It aims at detecting tau-neutrino charged-current interactions by observing the production of the tau lepton through its various decay modes by means of kinematical criteria.

Nonproliferation and International Security ( NIS/LANL )

NIS division projects ALEXIS Array of Low Energy X-ray Sensors BLACKBEARD A Broadband spaceborne RF detector experiment. FORTE Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events LAPP Los Alamos Portable Pulser MOXE MOnitoring X-ray Experiment for Astronomy HETE High Energy Transient Experiment for Astronomy DAHW Deployable Adaptive Processing Hardware X-ray data from P78-1 Energetic Particle data set for the CPA and SOPA detectors Magnetospheric Plasma Analyzer (MPA data) Multi-angle Imaging SpectoRadiometer (MISR) Oblique High Frequency Sounder NIS-7 projects Ulysses Solar Wind Observations Over the Poles of the Sun (SWOOPS) experiment General interest subjects Coded aperture imaging in high-energy astronomy (intro, instruments, bibliography) Research on celestial gamma-ray bursts in NIS-2 (preprints, links) The interests in astrophysics of the Astrophysics and Radiation Measurements Group (NIS-2) focus on gamma-ray bursts, x-ray binaries, accretion- and rotation-powered pulsars, neutron star dynamics, atomic processes in astrophysical sources, soft x-ray and EUV backgrounds, and EUV and soft x-ray transients such as flare stars. An important mission of the group is to develop new types of optical, ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma-ray detectors for ground and space applications. The group has flown high-energy instruments on Pioneer Venus Orbiter, the ISEE-3 (ICE), P78-1, Vela satellites, and the Japanese satellite Ginga. The group is currently developing experiments for several scientific missions including the X-ray Multimirror Mission (XMM), High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE), MARS-96, and the MOXE all sky x-ray monitor on the Russian Spectrum X-Gamma satellite project, and is the lead institution operating the Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors (ALEXIS) satellite and its wide field-of-view ultrasoft x-ray telescope array. The group is actively participating in Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) research through several guest investigator projects, and is also involved in establishing the growing-up Fenton Hill Observatory in the Jemez mountains, which includes an ultra-high-energy gamma-ray telescope, Milagro.

Physics and Space Technology Directorate ( LLNL )

Radio Array Neutrino Detector ( RAND )

Detection of coherent radio emission from electromagnetic showers produced by ultra-high energy neutrino-nucleon interactions

Relativistic Astrophysics Department - Sternberg Institute ( RelSAI )

Relativistic Astrophysics Department of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute. Preprints of the members of the department, scientific illustrations.

ROentgen SATellite ( ROSAT at GSFC. NASA )

ROSAT, the ROentgen SATellite, is an X-ray observatory developed through a cooperative program between the Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The satellite was designed and is operated by Germany, and was launched by the United States on June 1, 1990.

Satellites with High Energy Astrophysics Instrumentation ( HEASARC. GSFC. NASA )

Comprehensive list of satellites with high energy astrophysics instrumentation. Includes images from these missions

Solar Neutrino and Nucleon Decay Detector ( SuperKamiokande )

Large underground water cerenkov detector under construction in the Kamioka Mozumi mine (Japan), a.k.a., SuperKamiokande

Space Sciences Laboratory ( Berkeley )

HEAD The High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society. SPRG The Space Physics Research Group. SERENDIP The Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations. HOU The Hands-On Universe Program. COBE The Cosmic Background Explorer. EAG The Experimental Astrophysics Group. ISI The Infrared Spatial Interferometer Group. CEA The Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics. ORFEUS The Orbiting Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometers and The Berkeley Spectrometer.

Spectrum-X-Gamma Coordination facility ( SXG. University of Harvard )

Spectrum-X-Gamma (SXG) is an international high-energy astrophysics observatory which is being built under the leadership of the Russian Space Research Institute (IKI). The US SXG CF supports the US astronomical community in obtaining information about SXG, proposing for and making SXG observations, and performing archival research using the SXG archive

Sudbury Neutrino Observatory ( SNO at Queen's University )

SNO is an astronomical neutrino observatory that is being built below ground in the deepest section of INCO Limited's Creighton Mine near Sudbury, Ontario. SNO is an international collaboration of scientists from Canada, USA and UK. Information services are available at

• Queen's University
• University of Guelph

Super-Kamiokande

Super-Kamiokande is a joint Japan-US collaboration to construct the world's largest underground neutrino observatory.

Texas A&M University. High Energy Physics Group ( MACRO experiment at Gran Sasso )

Information server operated by the High Energy Physics Group at Texas A&M University

The High-Energy Astrophysics Learning Center

The High-Energy Astrophysics Learning Center is a middle school to college level resource on X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy. We provide information on celestial objects that generate high-energy radiation, X-ray and gamma-ray detector technology, and analysis of high-energy astrophysics data. We also provide multidisciplinary resources for teachers, including lesson plans, study guides, Adopt an Astronomer, and Ask a High-Energy Astronomer.

Uhuru Satellite ( GSFC. NASA )

Uhuru was the first earth-orbiting mission dedicated entirely to celestial X-ray astronomy. It was launched on 12 December 1970 into an orbit of about 560 km apogee, 520 km perigee, 3 degrees inclination, with a period of 96 minutes. The mission ended in March 1973.

UK Dark Matter Collaboration ( PPARC, UK )

The UK Dark Matter Collaboration is a consortium of astrophysicists and particle physicists, conducting experiments with the ultimate goal of detecting rare scattering events which would occur if the Galactic dark matter consists largely of a new heavy neutral particle.

Ulysses Mission ( JPL )

The Ulysses Mission is the first spacecraft to explore interplanetary space at high solar latitudes. Ulysses is a joint endeavor of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the USA. Instruments include: Magnetometer (VHM/FGM), Solar Wind Plasma Experiment (SWOOPS), Solar Wind Ion Composition Instrument (SWICS), Unified Radio and Plasma Wave Instrument (URAP), Energetic Particle Instrument (EPAC), Low-Energy Ion and Electron Experiment (HISCALE), Cosmic Ray and Solar Particle Instrument (COSPIN), Solar X-ray and Cosmic Gamma-Ray Burst Instrument (GRB)

X-Ray Group at IoA Cambridge UK

Home page of the X-Ray Astronomy Group at the Instittue of Astronomy, University of Cambridge. This server provides information on the Group's research activities and links to other useful astronomical WWW sites.

X-Ray Timing Explorer ( XTE. GSFC.NASA )

The X-ray Timing Explorer, a Goddard mission scheduled for launch in August 1995, is designed to facilitate the study of time variability in the emission of X-ray sources with moderate spectral resolution. Time scales from microseconds to months are covered in an instantaneous spectral range from 2 to 250 keV. It is designed for a required life time of two years, a goal of five years.