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2 years ago in Astrophysics , Physics By Neethi

Why is the angular resolution of Cherenkov telescopes worse than conventional optical telescopes, and how can it be improved?

I work in high-energy astrophysics and often have to explain our data to optical colleagues. They're always surprised that our giant mirrors yield resolutions of arcminutes, while their meter-class telescopes achieve arcseconds. I understand it's not about the mirror quality per se, but about the atmospheric phenomenon we're detecting. Could you clarify the fundamental limiting factors?

 

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By Varun Answered 1 year ago

The key is to remember we are not imaging the gamma-ray source directly. We image the faint, ultraviolet Cherenkov flash from the extensive air shower it creates in the atmosphere. This shower is several hundred meters wide by the time it hits the ground. The light from this gigantic, diffuse source arrives at our mirror over a large area, which fundamentally limits our ability to pinpoint the original gamma-ray's direction. While mirror alignment and camera pixel size matter, the dominant blurring is this intrinsic atmospheric physics. Improving resolution means statistically reconstructing the shower axis more precisely from the camera image, not polishing mirrors to optical standards.

 

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