Detection of a Record-Breaking Gamma-Ray Burst
Artistic depiction of a Gamma-ray with Jet. | © ICRR UTokyo / Naho Wakabayashi

The MAGIC Telescope System

The two 17-m MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov) telescopes are sited at an altitude of some 2200 metres, and form part of the European Northern Observatory on the Roque de los Muchachos on La Palma, one of the Canary Islands. MAGIC is an international collaborative project that involves some 160 researchers based at institutions in Germany, Spain, Italy, der Switzerland, Poland, Finland, Bulgaria, Croatia, India and Japan.

Eines der beiden MAGIC-Teleskope auf La Palma, Spanien (Foto: Alice Donini / MAGIC)

The fact that the telescope could be rapidly pointed at the source of the gamma-ray burst is a testimony to the quality of their powerful drive technology. The system’s components were manufactured by companies located in Lower Franconia and assembled by scientists and technicians in the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy at JMU and at the Max Planck Society’s Werner Heisenberg Institute for Physics. The extraordinary precision and rapid response of the MAGIC telescope system was a decisive factor in the discovery of the GRB and an essential prerequisite for the acquisition of a unique set of measurements of the early high-energy phase of a hypernova explosion.

Die MAGIC-Teleskope sind auf die Beobachtung heftiger, kurzlebiger Himmelsereignisse wie z.B. Gammablitze spezialisiert. (Foto: Robert Wagner / MAGIC)