"YODH PRIZE COLLOQUIUM: Very High Energy Gamma Ray Astronomy with the H.E.S.S. Telescopes: The Sky in a New Light"

Over the last decade, very high energy (VHE) gamma ray astronomy - astronomy at photon energies 1000 billion times higher than the energies of visible light - has developed in giant steps. Gamma rays of these energies cannot be produced as thermal radiation, but are created in interactions or decays of high energy cosmic particles. Gamma rays therefore trace populations of such particles and enable the cosmic particle accelerators to be imaged and studied. Gamma-ray emitting particle accelerators are found to be ubiquitous in the Galaxy and beyond; accelerators include a variety of galactic and extragalactic objects.

 

Systems of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) such as the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in Namibia have played a key role in advancing this new branch of astronomy. The presentation will cover the motivation driving these developments, introduce the Cherenkov technique, then discuss some of the key results, concentrating mostly work done with our  H.E.S.S. telescopes, and conclude with an outlook towards future instruments.