Preview of the BATSE Earth Occultation Catalog of Low Energy Gamma Ray Sources
Abstract
The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) has been detecting and monitoring point sources in the high energy sky since 1991. Although BATSE is best known for gamma ray bursts, it also monitors the sky for longer-lived sources of radiation. Using the Earth occultation technique to extract flux information, a catalog is being prepared of about 150 sources with potential emission in the large area detectors (20-1000 keV). The catalog will contain light curves, representative spectra, and parametric data for black hole and neutron star binaries, active galaxies, and supernova remnants. In this preview, we present light curves for persistent and transient sources, and also show examples of what type of information can be obtained from the BATSE Earth occultation database. Options for making the data easily accessible as an ``on line" WWW document are being explored.
- Publication:
-
AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #4
- Pub Date:
- April 1999
- Bibcode:
- 1999HEAD....4.2605H