Teams from Bochum and Dortmund are helping to build the largest gamma-ray observatory
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Gamma rays are of particular interest for the study of the universe: They are produced during high-energy cosmic processes, such as the explosion of massive stars or in jets from active galaxies. When gamma rays strike the Earth’s atmosphere, they produce flashes of blue light that last only tiny fractions of a second; although these are invisible to the human eye, they can be detected by special sensors.
It is precisely for this purpose that a total of 64 mirror telescopes will be built over the next five years in Chile’s Atacama Desert and on the Canary Island of La Palma. Together, they will form the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, or CTAO for short. It will be the world’s largest and most powerful observatory for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy—ten times more sensitive than previous detectors.
German consortium plays a key role in CTAO
A German consortium will play a key role in driving the construction and commissioning of the CTAO telescopes. To this end, the BMFTR is providing over four million euros over the next three years as part of the “Exploration of the Universe and Matter” program. The consortium includes the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Humboldt University Berlin, TU Dortmund University, and the universities of Bochum, Potsdam, Tübingen, and Würzburg. Also involved are the Max Planck Institutes for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg and for Physics in Garching near Munich, as well as the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Zeuthen, which is part of the Helmholtz Association. “The project partners play a crucial role in many aspects of CTAO: They test components, develop software for detection and data analysis, and support the commissioning of the first telescopes,” explains consortium spokesperson Prof. Dr. Stefan Funk of the Erlangen Center for Astroparticle Physics.
Researchers from Würzburg, Bochum, and Dortmund put telescopes into operation
The CTAO’s telescopes have a mirror diameter of 23 meters. In addition to commissioning the telescopes, researchers from Bochum, Dortmund, and Würzburg will also develop and install a system to monitor the vibrational behavior of these telescopes in order to detect potential damage to the chassis or the supporting structure at an early stage. Researchers at the Ruhr Innovation Lab will also help develop the software for the observatory.
Dr. Dominik Elsässer, lecturer at the Department of Physics at TU Dortmund University and head of the Dortmund subproject, explains: “The CTAO’s telescopes will provide us with a unique insight into the processes occurring, for example, in the vicinity of massive black holes at the centers of active galaxies.”
“Thanks to funding from the BMFTR, we can make the best possible use of the expertise of researchers in the Ruhr region, for example in the development of innovative software solutions. From a scientific perspective, we are particularly interested in the opportunities arising from the simultaneous operation of the CTAO with telescopes for other wavelength ranges and for neutrinos, as well as the theoretical modeling of the processes in gamma-ray sources,” said Prof. Dr. Julia Tjus, subproject leader at Ruhr University Bochum. Also involved in the Bochum subproject are the groups led by Prof. Dr. Anna Franckowiak and Dr. Elisa Püschel.
The researchers at the Ruhr Innovation Lab will receive a total of 910,000 euros over the next three years as part of the BMFTR’s collaborative research program, giving them the opportunity to significantly shape the field of multi-messenger astronomy.
Close collaboration in the Ruhr region
The groups at Ruhr University Bochum and TU Dortmund University work closely together as part of the Ruhr Innovation Lab and the DFG Collaborative Research Center 1491, addressing a broad range of questions in astrophysics, astroparticle physics, particle physics, and plasma astrophysics.
Once completed, the CTAO will play a leading role in exploring the universe using various information carriers. Researchers from the Ruhr University Alliance—namely Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and the University of Duisburg-Essen—are also involved in other major international astrophysics projects: the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole, the planned Einstein Telescope gravitational-wave detector, and projects leading up to the future SKAO radio observatory.
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