VERITAS

VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is a ground-based gamma-ray instrument operating at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) in southern Arizona, USA. It is an array of four 12m optical reflectors for gamma-ray astronomy in the GeV - TeV energy range. These imaging Cherenkov telescopes are deployed such that they have the highest sensitivity in the VHE energy band (50 GeV - 50 TeV), with maximum sensitivity from 100 GeV to 10 TeV. This VHE observatory effectively complements the NASA Fermi mission.

New: Most Distant VHE Blazar Revealed

News (18-Apr-2013): A new lower limit to the redshift of the PKS 1424+240 has been published (arXiv:1304.4859). PKS1424+240 was discovered in the VHE band by VERITAS and this new limit makes it the most distant VHE-detected blazar ever, with potential implications for the measurement of the gamma-ray opacity at VHE energies. See the UCSC press release here.

New Funding Opportunity for Fermi Cycle 6: VERITAS and Fermi Joint Program

The VERITAS team and the Fermi Science Support Center are pleased to announce a pilot program for the Fermi Cycle 6 GI Program that supports collaborative efforts to jointly observe high-energy gamma-ray sources with VERITAS and Fermi.  Successful proposals will be selected on a competitive basis via the Fermi Cycle 6 proposal review.  Details of the program are described in the VERITAS-Fermi Collaborative Agreement.  Further information is available at the FSSC website.

View of the FLWO basecamp and the VERITAS array. Click on the image for a larger version.