Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer

This is a single spark chamber element from the stack of 28 modules used in the gamma-ray detector called EGRET (Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope), one of four major instruments that flew on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite (CGRO). EGRET was responsible for producing an all-sky map of the gamma ray sky, locating new sources of gamma rays in the 20 to 30 billion electron volt energy range for closer study. Gamma-rays consist of energetic electromagnetic radiation that arises from a number of exotic processes that occur in particularly violent regions of the universe. These places include solar flares, nuclear reactions resulting from supernovae core collapse, the decay of radioactive particles in interstellar space, collisions of cosmic rays and interstellar gases and grains, annihilation events when matter and antimatter interact in the vicinity of neutron stars and black holes, and regimes in the cores of galaxies where supermassive black holes create intense gravitational acceleration. GRO was launched 1991 from the Space Shuttle Atlantis and provided data on celestial gamma-ray sources until it was commanded to re-enter the earth's atmosphere in June 2000 to minimize the chance of injury from the remnants of the 17-ton satellite, the largest civilian scientific payload ever flown on the Shuttle. This flight spare unit was manufactured by Ideas Inc., under contract to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It was transferred to NASM in 1993.

Display Status

This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.

Object Details
Country of Origin United States of America Type INSTRUMENTS-Scientific Manufacturer NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center
Dimensions 3-D (Overall, including protrusions, max dims): 109.5 × 107 × 22.9cm, 20.4kg (3 ft. 7 1/8 in. × 3 ft. 6 1/8 in. × 9 in., 45lb.)
Materials Frame - aluminum, potted electronics
Grid - copper wire
Inventory Number A19940037000 Credit Line EGRET element transferred from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Data Source National Air and Space Museum Restrictions & Rights Usage conditions apply
For more information, visit the Smithsonians Terms of Use.