Telescope to See Deep inside a Volcano

Jan 02, 2016

The Italian National Institute of Astrophysics has constructed Cherenkov-radiation telescope near Mount Etna that can provide pictures deep inside of the mountain.

The leading-edge telescope can track supernovae and quasars as well. It can track high-temperature celestial events—high-frequency photon particles with energies from 1 to 100 teraelectronvolts and objects spitting out cosmic gamma radiation.

The new telescope offers a different approach compared to the traditional way of finding muons and how they are absorbed during their hidden journey from deep inside volcano to the outside world. The telescope captures the blue glow of Cherenkov radiation easily which is generated by a charged particle moving through a dielectric medium. The new telescope is similar to double reflector telescope called Newtonian that uses curved mirrors to focus the Cherenkov light into a camera and create images.

The engineering team at INAF, the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics realized that their instrument could be used for geological as well as astrophysical research. They are planning to publish a research paper in 2016 journal Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment to show how to lower the telescope’s sights to see through the neighboring Mount Etna. They were able to resolve its inner structure faster and more clearly than other muon-detector-based instruments. 

Source:http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/at-work/test-and-measurement/to-see-deep-inside-a-volcano-use-a-telescope-built-for-quasars