Stockholm University
Fysikum
AlbaNova University Centre
SE-10961 Stockholm
Sweden
Tel: +46 (0)8 5537 8769
conrad at physto dot se
| H.E.S.S. |
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People: Jan Conrad (docent), Joachim Ripken (post-doc)
HESS is a system of imaging atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes for the investigation of cosmic gamma-rays in the energy range between 100 GeV and several TeV. The name HESS stands for . The HESS collaboration consists of about 30 institutes from Germany, France, Great Britain, Poland, Ireland, Czech Republic ,Australia and South Africa. The instrument allows to explore gamma-ray sources with intensities at a level of 10e-3 of the flux of the supernova remnant named the Crab nebula, far below previously achieved sensitivities. HESS is located in Namibia, an area well known for its excellent observational conditions. The first of the four telescopes of the Phase I of the HESS project went into operation in Summer 2002; all four were operational in December 2003, and were officially inaugurated on September 28, 2004. In recognition of its scientific results, HESS was awarded the 2006 Descartes Prize for Research of the European Commission. The HESS collaboration proposes to add to the four Phase~I telescopes a single large telescope, with a mirror area of 600~m^2, a focal length of 35-40~m and a fine-grained photon detector with about 2000 pixels (HESS II). Our main interest in HESS is the search for Dark Matter signal. |