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INAF-OSS. ASTRON. DI TRIESTE and DAUT SEMINAR
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Speaker: Alessandro De Angelis (Udine University)

Title: Gamma astroparticle physics and the MAGIC telescope

Abstract:

Because of the Earth's atmosphere shield, gamma-ray astronomy could
not develop until it was possible to get detectors on spacecrafts, and
to build large and sensitive ground-based detectors. The first
gamma-ray telescope carried into orbit, on the Explorer XI satellite
in 1961, picked up less than 100 cosmic gamma photons. Additional
gamma-ray experiments flew on the OGO, OSO, Vela, and Cosmos series of
satellites, and in the 80's we had the first missions completely
dedicated to the exploration of the gamma universe. New unexpected
phenomena were discovered by satellite observations, as for example
gamma-ray bursts and gamma-ray emission from blazars.

The expectations from the next generation of ground-based and
space-borne high energy gamma-ray projects are very exciting both for
quantity and quality of data that will be produced. The great vitality
of this field in the current ``post-EGRET era'' is witnessed by the
large number of ongoing and forthcoming gamma-ray experiments,
complementary to various cosmic- ray, neutrino and astroparticle
projects, and to X-ray missions. Italy is involved, in particular, in
the GLAST and AGILE space missions, and in the MAGIC and ARGO
ground-based experiments. The first results from MAGIC are already
available, and they open a new window in space observations.
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