WASHINGTON: Astronomers will get a chance to unveil the mysteries of cosmic gamma rays and look deeper into the universe and its origins after Nasa launched the high-tech GLAST telescope into orbit.

The Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope reached orbit 565 kilometres above the Earth around 75 minutes after the launch on Wednesday aboard a two-stage Delta 2 missile from the air force base at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Nasa said.

The satellite rocketed up at 1605 GMT, 20 minutes behind schedule due to a technical glitch at one of the stations that track the trajectory and relay flight data, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

The 4.3 tonne GLAST is outfitted with equipment to monitor gamma rays — the highest-energy forms of light — from cosmic sources that they hope will give insight into major events such as the formation of black holes. It is also aimed at hunting for clues to explain the strange magnetized neutron stars known as pulsars.

By studying photons and other subatomic particles of the cosmos, the telescope may also unlock the mysteries of dark matter, which comprises about 25% of mass in the universe but is invisible to the naked eye, compared with the 5% of visible matter. The remaining 70% is known as “dark energy”, a little understood phenomenon which is believed to speed the expansion of the universe. Scientists hope to gain vital information about the birth and evolution of the cosmos and study how black holes can spew jets of gas at stupendous speeds, according to Nasa.

The project, which brings together governments and academic researchers in the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Sweden, is aimed to last between five and 10 years. “GLAST will give us a spectacular high-energy gamma-ray vision,” deputy project scientist David Thompson said on Tuesday, before the launch.

“There's a broad science community that's anxiously awaiting this launch,” said Steven Ritz, a GLAST project scientist and astrophysicist at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center. “It's about to open up the universe to us in new and exciting ways,” in particular the “last unexplored regions of the electromagnetic spectrum,” Ritz said.

GLAST is a major advance over its predecessor EGRET, which was aboard the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory launched in 1991. GLAST should be able to make certain observations in mere days that took EGRET four years. In its first year, GLAST will focus on mapping the heavens with an unprecedented optical sensitivity that should allow it to discover between 5,000 and 10,000 sources of gamma rays.

Source: The Times of India
Date: 13 June 2008