Hawc gamma-ray telescope captures its first image [1]

BBC News, By: Jason Palmer, 04/15/2013

A new set of "eyes" to capture the Universe's highest-energy particles and light has snapped its first image.

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory or Hawc, high on a Mexican plain, now holds the record for the highest-energy light it can capture. The image - of the shadow cast by the Moon as it blocks the light and particles - was shown off at a meeting of the American Physical Society. Hawc is currently made of 30 detectors, but by 2014 will comprise some 300. Each one is a 7.3m-diameter, 4m-high tank filled with pure water. They dot the landscape at an altitude of 4,100m in a national park near the Mexican city of Puebla.

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