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arXiv · astro-ph/0608532

The Advanced Compton Telescope Mission

Abstract

The Advanced Compton Telescope (ACT), the next major step in gamma-ray astronomy, will probe the fires where chemical elements are formed by enabling high-resolution spectroscopy of nuclear emission from supernova explosions. During the past two years, our collaboration has been undertaking a NASA mission concept study for ACT. This study was designed to (1) transform the key scientific objectives into specific instrument requirements, (2) to identify the most promising technologies to meet those requirements, and (3) to design a viable mission concept for this instrument. We present the results of this study, including scientific goals and expected performance, mission design, and technology recommendations.

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Steven E. Boggs, James Kurfess, James Ryan, Elena Aprile, Neil Gehrels, Marc Kippen, Mark Leising, Uwe Oberlack, Cornelia Wunderer, Allen Zych, Peter Bloser, Michael Harris, Andrew Hoover, Alexei Klimenk, Dan Kocevski, Mark McConnell, Peter Milne, Elena I. Novikova, Bernard Phlips, Mark Polsen, Steven Sturner, Derek Tournear, Georg Weidenspointner, Eric Wulf, Andreas Zoglauer, Matthew Baring, John Beacom, Lars Bildsten, Charles Dermer, Dieter Hartmann, Margarita Hernanz, David Smith, Sumner Starrfield. 2006-08-24. The Advanced Compton Telescope Mission. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2006.06.076

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