High Energy Transient Explorer

High Energy Transient Explorer ( HETE ) is the name of two research satellites for rapid localization of gamma-ray bursts.

History

The HETE satellites have been developed under the leadership of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with another American, Japanese, French and Italian participation. The original HETE experiment with gamma, X-ray and ultraviolet instruments was launched on 14 November 1996, but failed because the satellite could not be separated from the launch vehicle.

HETE -2 as a repetition of the original mission was funded within the Explorer program and also referred to as Explorer 79. The satellite was launched on 9 October 2000 with an airborne Pegasus rocket and was in the spring of 2005, still in operation. In March 2007, very limited operation was only possible.

Construction

The main objective of HETE -2 is the rapid localization of gamma-ray bursts to judge others telescopes automatically on this sky position can. There has instruments for the energy ranges 8-500 keV (gamma radiation), 2-25 keV ( hard X rays) and 0.5-14 keV ( soft X-ray ), each capture a large field of view of more than one steradian.

The position of GRBs can therefore be accurately determined automatically within about one minute to about 10 minutes of arc and reported to observers with other telescopes. In some cases, accuracies are better than 30 arc seconds on average. The field of HETE -2 is directed away from the sun. The areas in which gamma-ray bursts are recorded, so can be made from Earth during the night in the visible light observed on.