Data processing of the mit gamma-ray telescope aboard oso-c.
Data processing of MIT gamma ray telescope aboard OSO-C, particularly packaging having electronic system without single internal cable
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Data processing of MIT gamma ray telescope aboard OSO-C, particularly packaging having electronic system without single internal cable
Gamma ray telescope design and operation including low power fast pulse transistor circuit techniques
An appropriate gamma-ray telescope could detect the gamma-rays associated with radioactive decays. The observable lines would be the annihilation radiation following the positron emission of N-13, O-14, O-15, and Na-22 and the 2.312-MeV line emitted following the O-14 decay and the 1.274-MeV line emitted following the Na-22 decay. The experimental possibility should be borne in mind for the occurrence of novae within a few kiloparsecs.
A 0.5 x 0.5-m digitized spark-chamber gamma-ray telescope was flown on three balloon flights to look at the galactic center region, Virgo, and the Crab Nebula. An excess flux above atmospheric background of over 4 standard deviations was found for gamma-rays exceeding 100 MeV coming from the galactic center region, but there was no statistically significant excess in the 50-100 MeV interval. As a result, there is only a 6% chance that Compton or synchrotron radiation from electrons with a power-law spectrum having an exponent of 2.6 could make as much as a 50% contribution to the gamma-radiation in this energy range.
Review of recorded data on the pulsed radiation detected by the Cornell 100-inch gas-Cerenkov gamma-ray telescope within 1 degree of the Crab Nebula in direction, at hundreds of MeV up to more than 1 GeV, coincident in time with optical pulses from NP 0532. A main pulse and a secondary pulse are shown to contain about an equal number of events and display evidence of being narrower than at lower energies. There is weak evidence for further pulse structure in the interval between these two peaks, and also for an unmodulated gamma-ray component about equal to the time-averaged pulsed flux.
A study program of radiation shielding against the deleterious effects of nuclear radiation on man and equipment is reported. The methods used to analyze the radiation environment from bremsstrahlung photons are discussed along with the methods employed by transport code users. The theory and numerical methods used to solve transport of neutrons and gammas are described, and the neutron and cosmic fluxes that would be present on the gamma-ray telescope were analyzed.
The detecting systems used in high energy astrophysics are generally more similar to particle detectors than to optical devices. The basic design of the gamma ray instrument depends on whether the energy range is below about 10 MeV and therefore in the region where the Compton effect predominates in the absorption of the gamma-rays, or above that energy where electron-positron pair production is most important. The most usual approach to the detector system in the lower of the two energy intervals is to use a scintillation counter in the center of the detector system to absorb the photons and permit a measure of their energy, and to surround it by another detector which is employed as an active anticoincidence shield to discriminate against charged particles. In the gamma-ray interval above about 10 MeV, the very low flux of gamma rays and the high particle background has directed the development of high energy gamma-ray telescopes towards complicated techniques and large detector arrays. As a result, several investigators have now turned to the spark chamber as the heart of a detector system. Generally, it is surrounded by an anticoincidence system and is triggered by a counter telescope.
A combination nuclear-emulsion-spark-chamber gamma-ray telescope has been used to study the region of sky that includes the Galactic center. Ninety-five per cent confidence upper limits on the flux from the reported sources G-gamma 2+3 and Sgr gamma-1 were placed at .000044 and .000088 photons per sq cm per sec, and a similar limit on the emission from the Galactic center as a point source was placed at .000033 photons per sq cm per sec. No enhanced emission was observed from the Galactic plane. Three regions of enhanced emission were observed that had a combined Poisson probability of occurrence of less than .005. One of these is associated with a region of enhanced emission reported by other workers.
Review of observation data obtained with a portable gas-Cerenkov gamma-ray telescope flown twice from Parana, Argentina (31.8 deg S), to search for gamma radiation from the galactic center. The angular resolution of this detector is not good enough to resolve the source structure controversy, i.e. whether the gamma radiation is coming from point sources or from a diffuse source along the galactic plane. Comparisons with observation data of other investigators are presented and discussed.
Leventhal noticed that the gamma-ray spectrum due to the annihilation of positronium, which consists of two 511 keV photons from the singlet state and three photons from the triplet state, produces a spectral feature with an apparent peak at an energy less than 511 keV when viewed with a gamma-ray telescope having a Gaussian energy resolution. He calculated that the observed peak will lie at 490 keV. The author calculates that if the positronium spectrum sits atop a steeply falling continuum due to other sources, then the apparent peak can easily fall near 476 keV where it was observed. It is shown that explosive nucleosynthesis is a plausible source of the positrons.
The Small Astronomy Satellite (SAS)-II, launched on Nov. 15, 1973, carried into orbit a 32-deck magnetic-core digitized-spark-chamber gamma-ray telescope to study celestial gamma radiation in the energy range above 30 MeV. As of May 21, 1973, SAS-II had viewed approximately half the sky, including the galactic center region, the galactic anti-center, and several regions off the galactic plane, and about one-third of the data from eight weeks of viewing has been analyzed. A finite diffuse flux for regions with galactic latitudes greater than 20 deg has been detected with a very steep energy spectrum. Combining this result with low-energy gamma-ray data yields a picture suggesting a cosmological origin for this radiation.
We propose a new technique for gamma-ray astronomy in the difficult but important energy decade from 0.3 to 3.0 MeV. Cosmic gamma rays Compton scatter in a liquid-xenon wire proportional chamber recently developed at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Derenzo, et al., 1972; Muller, et al., 1971) and then are totally absorbed in a second chamber. The energy and position of each interaction is recorded for each gamma ray. This information determines a circle on the celestial sphere which must intersect the source position. A localized source of gamma-rays would show itself as the intersection of many such circles. We expect to locate sources to a fraction of a square degree in a balloon-borne sky survey experiment using an instrument with a one steradian acceptance.
The result on gamma-rays obtained from the analysis of 5800 orbits of data from the University of Rochester telescope on board the OSO-3 satellite are presented. For gamma-rays of energy greater than 100 MeV, an upper limit of .00023 per sq cm per sec std has been placed on the diffuse (assumed isotropic) flux. An upper limit to the flux from the sun is set at .000032 and .000024 per sq cm per sec for energies greater than 50 and 100 MeV, respectively. All flux values are calculated assuming a neutral pion-decay source of gamma-rays.
Results in experimental study of shortwave radiation of interstellar absorption region with rocket mounted gamma and X-ray telescopes
High energy protons, helium and gamma rays observed by particle telescope on board OSO-C, obtaining integral rigidity spectra of proton and helium nuclei
Energetic gamma rays emission from radio source Cassiopeia A by high altitude balloon observations, using high resolution telescope
Gamma ray astronomy using balloon-borne telescope with digitized spark chamber
High energy gamma ray flux enhancement towards galactic plane from OSO-3 particle telescope observations