Shortly after Midsummer an enormous helium-filled balloon will be launched from the Esrange Space Centre with the PoGOLite (Polarised Gamma-ray Observer) telescope dangling under it. Rather than observing heavenly objects in visible light, PoGOLite is sensitive to X-rays - highly energetic light, if you like.
X-ray telescopes have been around for many years, but what makes PoGOLite special is that it can figure out the polarisation of the incident X-rays. This has not been done before and it will be very interesting to see what we discover! More on polarisation and X-rays in a later post...
When fully inflated, the balloon has a volume of about 1 million cubic metres which is twice the volume of the Globen Arena in Stockholm. The balloon has to be so large because PoGOLite is not so light - it weighs about 2 Tonnes. It is important to lift PoGOLite as high as possible since X-rays are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere. The PoGOLite team have been based at Esrange for a few weeks now to prepare for the launch. In the following photos you can see that the payload is starting to take shape. More updates from Esrange will be posted in the run-up to the launch...
/Mark
Bider: The Esrange balloon-pad bathed in the midnight sun (foto: Mark Pearce)
Esrange personnel helping to assemble PoGOLite (foto: Johanna Bergström-Roos)
