CHERENKOV TELESCOPE ARRAY

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is an observatory of a new generation of Cherenkov telescopes, actually under construction. The observatory is the result of an international scientific initiative in the field of astroparticle physics.

Cherenkov telescopes detect the light emitted by electromagnetic cascades produced by gamma rays interacting with the Earth's atmosphere. The reconstruction of the properties of these gamma rays by means of the detected light, allows us to study the physical processes which emit the highest quantities of energy in the universe:  supernova explosions, black holes, microquasars, active galactic nuclei, and gamma ray bursts among others. CTA will also be used for the search of dark matter and to study the possible quantum structure of space-time.

CTA will contain dozens of telescopes in three different sizes, with mirrors 4m, 12m, and 23m in diameter respectively, covering an area around a square kilometer in the northern hemisphere and around three square kilometers in the southern hemisphere.

                                                                

The northern hemisphere observatory is being built at the Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma in Spain, while the southern hemisphere observatory will be located in the territory of the European Organisation for Research in Astrophysics in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) of Paranal-Armazones in Chile.

Additional information can be found in http://observatorio-cta.es, https://www.cta-observatory.org/ and https://portal.cta-observatory.org/Pages/Home.aspx.

A very interesting presentation about CTA from Werner Hofmann can be found here.