High Energy Stereoscopic System Captures Its First-Ever Pulsar from the Ground

The High Energy Stereoscopic System, HESS-II, has detected its first-ever pulsar. The telescope detected gamma rays of only 30 Giga electron volts (GeV) from the Vela pulsar. This is just the second pulsar to be spotted by ground-based gamma ray telescopes.

The HESS experiment in Namibia actually sports a fifth and larger reflecting telescope. It's the first Cherenkov system with telescopes of different sizes detecting cosmic TeV gamma rays in sync. The fifth 28-meter telescope, which was placed at the center of four other 12-meter telescopes, lowers the energy range under study down to 30 GeV, allowing the system to detect more objects in space than ever before.

That said, it wasn't easy. Being able to detect the Vela pulsar required two years of intensive software development.

"For the reconstruction of the data from the 28-meter telescope, we performed a highly sensitive analysis based on extremely complex algorithms," said Mathieu de Naurois, CNRS researcher, in a news release. "For the first time, this allowed us to detect gamma radiation of only 30 GeV from ground level. Since we are able to survey a projected area of 10 hectares in the atmosphere, we have a considerably higher yield of gamma rays than the largest satellite experiments such as Fermi."

In fact, the scientists can now spot up to one gamma per second, which is a new record. In addition, the new data reveals regular gamma ray pulses at a frequency of 89 milliseconds coming from the direction of the Vela pulsar.

The findings could help researchers study pulsars in the Milky Way in the future. With HESS-II, scientists plan to further explore our galaxy and even examine its very center. The latest generation telescopes could make a major difference when it comes to understanding the roles that celestial objects play within our universe.