HESSI satellite launched Tuesday, February 5

 

A satellite dedicated solely to the study of solar flares and designed, built and operated by an international consortium led by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, launched on Tuesday, February 5, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, or HESSI, embarked on a two- to three-year mission to look at high-energy X-ray and gamma ray emissions from solar flares -- enormous explosions in the solar atmosphere. Though various satellites have made X-ray and gamma ray observations of flares, HESSI is the first to snap pictures in gamma rays and the highest energy X-rays.

Contributors from ME include David Pankow ( - ,‘73,’78), Bobby Besuner (‘89-Drake,’91), Jed McCann (‘00), Bob Pratt (‘84,’87,’02), Paul Turin (‘86) with help from Hari Dharan ( - ,’65,’68) and the BCL Team.

Update Read an article in The Berkeleyan on Hessi's star status. Find Hessi's web page at hessi.ssl.berkeley.edu.