Astronomía gamma con telescopios Cherenkov: hacia un observatorio astronómico abierto a la comunidad

A.C. ROVERO

Salta

Congreso; 53 Reunión Anual de la Asociación Argentina de Astronomía; 2010

Gamma-ray astronomy is opening the way to a universe far more energetic than anyone could have imagined half a century ago. Theunderstanding of the processes of nature which carry a large portion of the energy in the universe, has astrophysical and cosmological implications. The next generation of Cherenkov telescopes, an order of magnitude more sensitive and with higher resolution than the current systems, will mean a significant step forward for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy. This paper presents the current status of this field as well as the next generation of telescopes in this energy range, which are being designed for the first international observatory open to the astronomical community. The Cherenkov Telescope Array project and the Argentine sites proposed for the southern observatory are described in this paper.