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Delta rocket lofts GPS
The Boeing Delta 2 rocket lifts off Saturday morning with the GPS 2R-13 satellite from pad 17B at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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Launch in full
This longer-length clip follows the Delta 2 rocket during its late-night ascent carrying the latest Global Positioning System satellite. (2min 25sec file)
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Delta scrub
A red alarm triggers Friday morning's countdown to launch of Boeing's Delta 2 rocket carrying a GPS satellite to be scrubbed at Cape Canaveral, Florida. (1min 52sec file)
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Swift preview
Mission scientists preview NASA's Swift gamma-ray burst detection satellite being readied for launch into Earth orbit. (39min 49sec file)
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Voting from space
International Space Station Expedition 10 commander Leroy Chiao talks about the election and voting from orbit with CNN's Paula Zahn. (10min 20sec file)
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Delta 4-Heavy preview
Preview what a Boeing Delta 4 rocket launch will be like with this animation package of a "Heavy" configuration vehicle. (1min 41sec file)
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Cassini science update
Radar imagery of Saturn's moon Titan and other new data from the Cassini spacecraft is presented during this JPL news conference on Thursday. (54min 48sec file)
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Post-flyby briefing
Scientists and mission officials discuss the initial pictures and data obtained during Cassini's flyby of Titan during this JPL news conference on Wednesday. (55min 18sec file)
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First pictures
The first pictures taken by Cassini during this close encounter with Titan are received at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to the delight of the mission's imaging leader. (2min 21sec file)
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Origin of cosmic rays revealed with gamma rays
PARTICLE PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY RESEARCH COUNCIL RELEASE
Posted: November 7, 2004

A team of UK astronomers working with international partners has produced the first ever image of an astronomical object using high energy gamma rays, helping to solve a 100 year old mystery - an origin of cosmic rays. Their research, published in the journal Nature on November 4th, was carried out using the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), an array of four telescopes, in Namibia, South-West Africa.

The astronomers studied the remnant of a supernova that exploded some 1,000 years ago, leaving behind an expanding shell of debris which, seen from the Earth, is twice the diameter of the Moon. The resulting image helps to solve a mystery that has been puzzling scientists for almost 100 years - the origin of cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are extremely energetic particles that continually bombard the Earth, thousands of them passing through our bodies every day. The production of gamma rays in this supernova shock wave tells us that it is acting like a giant particle accelerator in space, and thus a likely source of the cosmic rays in our galaxy.

Dr Paula Chadwick of the University of Durham said "This picture really is a big step forward for gamma-ray astronomy and the supernova remnant is a fascinating object. If you had gamma-ray eyes and were in the Southern Hemisphere, you could see a large, brightly glowing ring in the sky every night."

Professor Ian Halliday, CEO of PPARC which funds UK participation in H.E.S.S. said "These results provide the first unequivocal proof that supernovae are capable of producing large quantities of galactic cosmic rays - something we have long suspected, but never been able to confirm."

Gamma rays are the most penetrating form of radiation we know, around a billion times more energetic than the X-rays produced by a hospital X-ray machine. This makes it very difficult to use them to create an image - they just pass straight through any surface which we might use to reflect them, for instance. However, luckily for life on Earth, gamma rays from objects in outer space are stopped by the atmosphere; when this happens, a faint flash of blue light is produced, lasting for a few billionths of a second. The astronomers used images of these flashes of light, called Cherenkov radiation, to make a gamma ray 'image' for the first time.

The H.E.S.S. collaboration
The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) team consists of scientists from Germany, France, the UK, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Armenia, South Africa and Namibia.

The H.E.S.S. array
Over the last few years, the H.E.S.S. collaboration have been building a system of four telescopes in the Khomas Highland region of Namibia, to study very-high-energy gamma rays from cosmic particle accelerators. The telescopes, known as Cherenkov telescopes, image the light created when high-energy cosmic gamma rays are absorbed in the atmosphere, and have opened a new energy domain for astronomy. The H.E.S.S. telescopes each feature mirrors of area 107 square metres, and are equipped with highly sensitive and very fast 960-pixel light detectors in the focal planes. Construction of the telescope system started in 2001; the fourth telescope was commissioned in December 2003. Observations were being made even while the system was being built, first using a single telescope, then with two and three telescopes. While only the complete four-telescope system provides the full performance, the first H.E.S.S. telescope alone was already superior to any of the instruments operated previously in the southern hemisphere. Among the first targets to be observed with a two- telescope instrument was the Galactic Centre.