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GLAST Reaches Orbit, Set To Begin Observations

Posted by Soulskill on from the more-than-half-full dept.

Btarlinian writes "GLAST (the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope) was launched Wednesday at 1605 GMT. GLAST was built in a rather interesting manner, in that much of the work was funded by the Department of Energy. In fact, the main instrument on GLAST, the Large Area Telescope was assembled at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. It can detect gamma rays at energies between 20 MeV and 300 GeV. Researchers will use GLAST to study some of the most massive and energetic objects known to science."

1 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Why not osmium then? by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Z**2 is only 5% better than tungsten but it's denser. That or iridium.

    They're more expensive than tungsten, but for a space instrument the cost of materials is nothing compared to the cost of launch.