THE COMPTON GAMMA RAY OBSERVATORY INSTRUMENTS
At 17 tons, the observatory
is the heaviest unmanned scientific spacecraft ever launched by NASA. Almost
twice as heavy as the Hubble Space Telescope, it measures 9 meters (30
feet) long by 4.5 meters (15 feet) in diameter.
The final assembly of the Compton Observatory at the TRW facility
(Courtesy of NASA)
Energetic
Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET)
EGRET studies the highest-energy gamma rays associated with quasars,
neutron stars, and black
holes.
Compton
Telescope (COMPTEL)
COMPTEL is conducting the first deep survey of the entire sky at medium-energy
gamma rays. It maps the locations
of supernovae and other sources.
Oriented
Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (OSSE)
OSSE measures gamma rays created by matter-antimatter annihilation or
by the decay of radioactive elements in energetic solar flares and other
celestial sources.
Burst
and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE)
BATSE studies gamma-ray bursts,
enigmatic flashes that may come from the most distant part of the observable
universe.
A service of the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics at
Goddard Space Flight Center
Technical Rep: Jay Norris
Web Curator: J.D. Myers
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Viewing The Violent Universe was created by
Joslyn Schoemer, Stephanie Leitner and Tom Chi.
Questions and comments may be sent to Joslyn Schoemer at
jschoemer@challenger.org.