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G. R. Ricker (MIT), HETE Science Team
The HETE mission, successfully launched into equatorial orbit on 9 October 2000, is the first satellite mission devoted to the study of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). HETE utilizes a matched suite of low energy X-ray, medium energy X-ray, and gamma-ray detectors mounted on a compact spacecraft. A unique feature of HETE is its potential for localizing GRBs with ~10 arcmin accuracy (medium energy X-rays) to ~10 arcsec accuracy (low energy X-rays), in real time aboard the spacecraft. These GRB locations are transmitted, within ~ seconds to minutes, directly to a dedicated network of telemetry receivers at 12 automated ``Burst Alert Stations" (BAS) sited along the satellite ground track. The BAS network then re-distributes the GRB locations world-wide via Internet in ~1 second. Thus, prompt optical, IR, and radio follow-up identifications are anticipated for a large fraction of HETE GRBs.
Results of the first half-year of GRB observations from HETE will be presented.
The HETE scientific team includes participants from France, Japan, Italy, and the USA. This research was supported in the USA by NASA contract NASW-4690.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: grr@space.mit.edu