Kobe University scientists could precisely image a gamma-ray-emitting pulsar (the skys lighthouses) with a stack of radioactivity-sensitive movies on a balloon. Credit: Kobe UniversityA pancake stack of radioactivity-sensitive films carried through the sky by a balloon was able to take the worlds most accurate picture of a neutron stars gamma-ray beam. “Our group has been focusing on the excellent ability of emulsion film to trace gamma rays with high accuracy and proposed that it might become an exceptional gamma-ray telescope by presenting several modern data capture and analysis functions,” explains Aoki.Based on the high level of sensitivity of these films and an unique, automated, high-speed process of drawing out data from them, the physicists idea was to stack up a few of them to accurately record the trajectory of the particles that the gamma-ray produces on effect, simply like a single pancake might capture where you poke a straw into it, however it takes a whole stack to record the straws direction.An area of the emulsion film after advancement.
Kobe University researchers could precisely image a gamma-ray-emitting pulsar (the skys lighthouses) with a stack of radioactivity-sensitive films on a balloon. Credit: Kobe UniversityA pancake stack of radioactivity-sensitive movies brought through the sky by a balloon was able to take the worlds most precise image of a neutron stars gamma-ray beam. Credit: GRAINE collaborationInnovative Approach Using Photographic FilmsTo fix this issue, Kobe University astrophysicist Aoki Shigeki and his group turned to the extremely first material that was utilized to spot radioactivity, photographic movies. “Our group has actually been focusing on the exceptional ability of emulsion movie to trace gamma rays with high accuracy and proposed that it might become an outstanding gamma-ray telescope by introducing numerous contemporary data capture and analysis functions,” explains Aoki.Based on the high sensitivity of these films and a novel, automated, high-speed process of extracting information from them, the physicists idea was to stack up a few of them to accurately capture the trajectory of the particles that the gamma-ray produces on impact, just like a single pancake may capture where you poke a straw into it, but it takes a whole stack to tape-record the straws direction.An area of the emulsion film after development.
