Jennifer Carson
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Abstract:
The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is a space-based > observatory scheduled to launch in the Fall of 2007 with two > instruments: (1) the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM), sensitive to photon > energies between 8 keV and 30 MeV and optimized to detect gamma-ray > bursts, and (2) the Large Area Telescope (LAT), sensitive to gamma rays > between ~20 MeV and 200 GeV and designed to survey the gamma-ray sky > with unprecedented sensitivity. One of the LAT's main science goals is > to detect high-energy emission from active galaxies. In particular, the > LAT is expected to detect thousands of blazars, greatly extending the > known gamma-ray sample of ~100 objects and allowing detailed studies of > the high-energy processes in these sources. This talk will focus on the > LAT's capabilities for detecting and constraining physical models for > blazars. It will also review the observatory itself and the current > status of the LAT and the GBM.