The Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE), is a gamma ray

Gamma ray

Gamma radiation, also known as gamma rays or hyphenated as gamma-rays and denoted as γ, is electromagnetic radiation of high frequency . Gamma rays are usually naturally produced on Earth by decay of high energy states in atomic nuclei...

 detector located near Albuquerque, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. Observations with STACEE began in October 2001 and concluded in June 2007. Gamma rays were observed from objects such as the Crab Nebula

Crab Nebula

The Crab Nebula  is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus...

, a supernova remnant

Supernova remnant

A supernova remnant is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar material it sweeps up and shocks along the way.There are two...

, and Markarian 421

Markarian 421

Markarian 421 is a blazar located in the constellation Ursa Major. The object is an active galaxy and a BL Lacertae object, and is a strong source of gamma rays. It is about 397 million light-years to 434 million light-years from the Earth...

, a blazar

Blazar

A blazar is a very compact quasar associated with a presumed supermassive black hole at the center of an active, giant elliptical galaxy...

. STACEE uses the heliostat

Heliostat

A heliostat is a device that includes a mirror, usually a plane mirror, which turns so as to keep reflecting sunlight toward a predetermined target, compensating for the sun's apparent motions in the sky. The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a direction in space...

s and space on the receiver

Solar power tower

The solar power tower is a type of solar furnace using a tower to receive the focused sunlight. It uses an array of flat, movable mirrors to focus the sun's rays upon a collector tower...

 tower of the National Solar Thermal Test Facility operated by the Sandia National Laboratories

Sandia National Laboratories

The Sandia National Laboratories, managed and operated by the Sandia Corporation , are two major United States Department of Energy research and development national laboratories....

 on the grounds of the Kirtland Air Force Base

Kirtland Air Force Base

Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland...

. In the daytime, the facility is used for solar energy research. During the night STACEE uses the heliostats to reflect the brief flashes of Čerenkov radiation caused by gamma rays hitting the upper atmosphere to photodetectors mounted in the tower. STACEE is a nonimaging

Nonimaging optics

Nonimaging optics is the branch of optics concerned with the optimal transfer of light radiation between a source and a target...

 telescope, meaning that it detects the light from a portion of the sky, but does not resolve the light into an image.

The detector is operated in consortium with several universities, including McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

, Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...

, the University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

 (UCLA), the University of California, Santa Cruz

University of California, Santa Cruz

The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...

, Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, and the University of Alberta

University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...

.

External links

• STACEE is located at 34.9623°N 106.5097°W
• UCLA STACEE Page