Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Tue Jan 08 2019 07:52:24 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2019 January 8 HESS Telescopes Explore the High-Energy Sky Video Credit & Copyright: Vikas Chander [2] , H.E.S.S. Collaboration [3] ; Music: Emotive Piano by Immersive Music [4] Explanation: They may look like modern mechanical dinosaurs but they are enormous swiveling eyes that watch the sky. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Observatory [5] is composed of four 12-meter reflecting-mirror telescopes surrounding a larger telescope [6] housing a 28-meter mirror. They are designed to detect strange flickers of blue light -- Cherenkov radiation [7] --emitted when charged particles [8] move slightly faster than the speed of light [9] in air. This light is emitted when a gamma ray [10] from a distant source strikes a molecule in Earth's atmosphere and starts a charged-particle shower [11] . H.E.S.S. [12] is sensitive to some of the highest energy photons (TeV [13] ) crossing the universe. Operating since 2003 in Namibia [14] , H.E.S.S. has searched for dark matter [15] and has discovered over 50 sources [16] emitting high energy radiation including supernova remnants [17] and the centers of galaxies [18] that contain supermassive black holes [19] . Pictured last September, H.E.S.S. telescopes swivel and stare in time-lapse sequences [20] shot in front of our Milky Way Galaxy [21] and the Magellanic Clouds [22] -- as the occasional Earth-orbiting satellite zips by. Open Science: Browse 1,800+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library [23] Tomorrow's picture: forgotten stars ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [24] | Archive [25] | Submissions [26] | Index [27] | Search [28] | Calendar [29] | RSS [30] | Education [31] | About APOD [32] | Discuss [33] | > [34] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [35] (MTU [36] ) & Jerry Bonnell [37] (UMCP [38] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [39] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [40] A service of: ASD [41] at NASA [42] / GSFC [43] & Michigan Tech. U. [44] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] https://www.flickr.com/people/166147883@N04/ [3] https://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/hfm/HESS/pages/collaboration/ [4] https://www.premiumbeat.com/artist/immersive-music [5] https://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/hfm/HESS/pages/about/telescopes/ [6] ap120727.html [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charged_particle [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light [10] https://science.nasa.gov/ems/12_gammarays [11] ap060814.html [12] https://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/hfm/HESS/pages/about/ [13] https://scienceblogs.com/builtonfacts/2013/11/27/ how-often-does-the-sun-emit-1-tev-photons [14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia [15] https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/9-12/features/ what-is-dark-matter.html [16] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018A%26A...612A...1H [17] ap170518.html [18] ap180729.html [19] https://apod.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html [20] https://vimeo.com/302897067 [21] ap180427.html [22] ap160725.html [23] http://ascl.net/code/all [24] ap190107.html [25] archivepix.html [26] lib/apsubmit2015.html [27] lib/aptree.html [28] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [29] calendar/allyears.html [30] /apod.rss [31] lib/edlinks.html [32] lib/about_apod.html [33] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190108 [34] ap190109.html [35] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [36] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [37] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [38] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [39] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [40] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [41] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [42] https://www.nasa.gov/ [43] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [44] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .