29.04.2013

Clearing the way for the gamma-ray observatory CTA

Ministry of research includes Cherenkov Telescope Array into roadmap

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF included the planned observatory for cosmic gamma rays CTA as one of three large-scale projects into its roadmap for large-scale research infrastructures. “This clears the way to define the open questions concerning contents and funding,” research minister Professor Johanna Wanka pointed out in a letter to Professor Christian Stegmann, head of the DESY institute in Zeuthen, and to Professor Werner Hoffmann, director at the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics.

„We are very glad about the commitment of the German government to this future project,” Stegmann emphasizes. DESY, together with the Max Planck Institutes in Heidelberg and Munich and nine universities, represents the largest national group within the CTA project, promoted by a global consortium of more than 1000 scientists. The Cherenkov Telescope Array CTA will measure cosmic high-energy gamma rays and it will consist of three different-sized telescope types. DESY is responsible for the design and construction of one of the three telescope types. In May, a prototype takes up test operation at the Berlin Science Park Adlershof.

“The universe is full of natural particle accelerators, for example in supernova explosions, binary star systems or active galactic nuclei,” said Professor Christian Stegmann. “So far, we know only about 150 of these objects and we begin to understand the physics of these fascinating systems. The Cherenkov Telescope Array will observe thousands of these accelerators with so far unprecedented sensitivity. Hence, it will be the gamma astronomy observatory of the future.”

In 2011, the BMBF appointed the Scientific Council to review concepts for large-scale scientific infrastructure projects. Now, the BMBF included three of the evaluated research infrastructures and expressed its support in principle. “With this roadmap, we are able to make sure that our investments create carefully targeted excellent conditions for the benefit of research,” said Wanka on Monday in Berlin, when she presented the BMBF roadmap for research infrastructures.

Apart from CTA, the two other projects included in the 2013 roadmap are the platform EU-Openscreen providing new biologically active substances used as tools in research and design in all fields of life sciences, and the IAGOS project for the systematic utilisation of in-service aircrafts to record atmospheric data.

BMBF information: http://www.bmbf.de/press/3442.php
More about CTA: http://www.desy.de/research/projects/cta/index_eng.html