MPP Colloquium

The H.E.S.S. view on the Very High Energy Universe.

by Prof. Mathieu De Naurois (LLR & Ecole Polytechnique)

Europe/Berlin
MPI Meeting rooms

MPI Meeting rooms

Description
In the last 15 years, ground based Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes have opened a new astronomical window, at the upper part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and discovered a rich zoo of both galactic and extra galactic very high energy gamma-ray emitters, belonging to the classes of pulsar wind nebulae (PWN), supernova remnants (SNR), active galactic nuclei (AGN), y ray binaries and even more exotic ones. This major breakthrough was made available by the advent of mature, third generation instruments, such as H.E.S.S., MAGIC and VERITAS. The H.E.S.S. array of telescopes, located in Nambia and inaugurated in 2003 with four telescopes, was completed in 2012 by the addition of a fifth, giant telescope of 28 meter diameter, which is currently the largest in the world. H.E.S.S. was awarded the Descartes Prize for 2006 and Rossi Prize in 2010 in recognition of its numerous discoveries, and took an important part in the current emergence of multi-messenger, multi-wavength astronomy that is currently revolutionizing our view on the High Energy Universe. After a quick description of the Atmospheric Cherenkov technique, I will present a summary of the latest H.E.S.S. results, describing the most interesting new observations and their physical interpretation. I will conclude with the latest and upcoming upgrades of H.E.S.S. and the future science prospects for the experiment as well as for the field of ground based gamma-ray astronomy in general.