Calorimetric Electron Telescope

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is a space telescope being mainly used to perform high precision observations of electrons and gamma rays. It tracks the trajectory of electrons, protons, nuclei, and gamma rays and measures their direction, charge and energy, which may help understand the nature of dark matter or nearby sources of high-energy particle acceleration.[2]

The mission was developed and sponsored by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), involving teams from Japan, Italy, and the United States. CALET was launched aboard JAXA's H-II Transfer Vehicle Kounotori 5 (HTV-5) on 19 August 2015, and was placed on the International Space Station's Japanese Kibo module.

Overview
3D map of the large-scale distribution of dark matter, reconstructed from measurements of weak gravitational lensing with the Hubble Space Telescope.[3]

CALET is an astrophysics mission that searches for signatures of dark matter and provides the highest energy direct measurements of the cosmic ray electron spectrum in order to observe discrete sources of high-energy particle acceleration in our local region of the galaxy.[4][5] The mission was developed and sponsored by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), involving teams from Japan, Italy, and the United States. It seeks to understand the mechanisms of particle acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays in our galaxy, to identify their sources of acceleration, their elemental composition as a function of energy, and possibly to unveil the nature of dark matter.[2] Such sources seem to be able to accelerate particles to energies far higher than scientists can achieve on Earth using the largest accelerators. Understanding how nature does this is important to space travel and has possible applications here on Earth.[2] The CALET Principal Investigator is Shoji Torii from the Waseda University, Japan; John Wefel is the co-principal investigator for the US team; Pier S. Marrocchesi, is the co-investigator from the Italy team.

Unlike optical telescopes, CALET operates in a scanning mode. It records each cosmic ray event that enters its field of view and triggers its detectors to take measurements of the cosmic ray in the extremely high energy region of teraelectronvolts (TeV, one trillion electronvolts).[5] These measurements are recorded on the space station and sent to a ground station at Louisiana State University for analyses.[6] CALET may also yield evidence of rare interactions between matter and dark matter by working in synergy with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) – also aboard the ISS – that is looking at positrons and antiprotons to identify dark matter.[2] Observations will be carried out for 2–5 years.[7]

CALET contains a subpayload CIRC (Compact Infrared Camera) to observe Earth surface, to detect forest fires.[8]
Objectives

The objectives are to understand the following:[9]

origin and mechanisms of acceleration of high-energy cosmic rays and gamma rays
propagation mechanism of cosmic rays throughout the Galaxy
identity of dark matter

As a cosmic ray observatory, CALET aims to clarify high energy space phenomena and dark matter from two perspectives; one is particle creation and annihilation in the field of particle physics (or nuclear physics) and the other is particle acceleration and propagation in the field of space physics.
Results

CALET first published data on half a million electron and positron cosmic ray events in 2017, finding a spectral index of −3.152 ± 0.016 above 30 GeV.[10][11]
See also

List of X-ray space telescopes – Wikipedia list article

References

"NASA - Fermi's Latest Gamma-ray Census Highlights Cosmic Mysteries". www.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
Dunn, Andrea (9 October 2014). "Dark Matter and Particle Acceleration in Near Space". NASA News. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
"Hubble Maps the Cosmic Web of "Clumpy" Dark Matter in 3-D" (Press release). NASA. 7 January 2007.
"CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) – at NASA". Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA). 27 August 2015. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
CALET aboard the ISS Kibo Started the First Direct Electron Observation in Tera Electron Volt Region[permanent dead link]. JAXA Press Release. 22 October 2015.
CALET USA. Louisiana State University (2015).
"CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET): Background". Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA). 24 April 2014. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
"Compact Infrared Camera(CIRC)". JAXA. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
"CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET): Background". Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA). 24 April 2014. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
CALET Collaboration; Adriani, O.; Akaike, Y.; Asano, K.; Asaoka, Y.; Bagliesi, M. G.; Bigongiari, G.; Binns, W. R.; Bonechi, S. (2017-11-01). "Energy Spectrum of Cosmic-Ray Electron and Positron from 10 GeV to 3 TeV Observed with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope on the International Space Station". Physical Review Letters. 119 (18): 181101. arXiv:1712.01711. Bibcode:2017PhRvL.119r1101A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.181101. PMID 29219544.

"First cosmic-ray results from CALET on the ISS – CERN Courier". cerncourier.com. Retrieved 2017-11-17.

External links

[1][permanent dead link] "Status and performance of the Calorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) on the International Space Station". (PDF) By Roberta Sparvoli.
[2] CALET brochure in English (PDF) at JAXA.

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Dark matter
Forms of
dark matter

Baryonic dark matter Cold dark matter Hot dark matter Light dark matter Mixed dark matter Warm dark matter Self-interacting dark matter Scalar field dark matter Primordial black holes

Hypothetical particles

Axino Axion Dark photon Holeum LSP Minicharged particle Neutralino Sterile neutrino SIMP WIMP

Theories
and objects

Cuspy halo problem Dark fluid Dark galaxy Dark globular cluster Dark matter halo Dark radiation Dark star Dwarf galaxy problem Halo mass function Mass dimension one fermions Massive compact halo object Mirror matter Navarro–Frenk–White profile Scalar field dark matter

Search
experiments
Direct
detection

ADMX ANAIS ArDM CDEX CDMS CLEAN CoGeNT COSINE COUPP CRESST CUORE D3 DAMA/LIBRA DAMA/NaI DAMIC DarkSide DARWIN DEAP DM-Ice DMTPC DRIFT EDELWEISS EURECA KIMS LUX LZ MACRO MIMAC NAIAD NEWAGE NEWS-G PandaX PICASSO PICO ROSEBUD SABRE SIMPLE TREX-DM UKDMC WARP XENON XMASS ZEPLIN

Indirect
detection

AMS-02 ANTARES ATIC CALET CAST DAMPE Fermi HAWC HESS IceCube MAGIC MOA OGLE PAMELA VERITAS

Other projects

MultiDark PVLAS

Potential dark galaxies

HE0450-2958 HVC 127-41-330 Smith's Cloud VIRGOHI21

Antimatter Dark energy Exotic matter Galaxy formation and evolution Illustris project Imaginary mass Negative mass UniverseMachine

vte

Space observatories
Operating

ACE (since 1997) AGILE (since 2007) AMS-02 (since 2011) Aoi (since 2018) Astrosat (since 2015) BRITE constellation (since 2013) CALET (since 2015) Chandra (AXAF) (since 1999) CHEOPS (since 2019) DAMPE (since 2015) DSCOVR (since 2015) Fermi (since 2008) Gaia (since 2013) HXMT (Insight) (since 2017) Hinode (Solar-B) (since 2006) HiRISE (since 2005) Hisaki (SPRINT-A) (since 2013) Hubble (since 1990) INTEGRAL (since 2002) IBEX (since 2008) IRIS (since 2013) ISS-CREAM (since 2017) Max Valier Sat (since 2017) MAXI (since 2009) Mikhailo Lomonosov (since 2016) Mini-EUSO (since 2019) NCLE (since 2018) NEOSSat (since 2013) NICER (since 2017) NuSTAR (since 2012) Odin (since 2001) SDO (since 2010) SOHO (since 1995) SOLAR (since 2008) Spektr-RG (since 2019) STEREO (since 2006) Swift (since 2004) TESS (since 2018) Wind (since 1994) WISE (since 2009) XMM-Newton (since 1999)

Planned

iWF-MAXI (2020) Astro-1 Telescope (2020) Nano-JASMINE (2020) ORBIS (2020) ILO-X (2021) IXPE (2021) James Webb Space Telescope (2021) XPoSat (2021) Euclid (2022) Space Solar Telescope (2022) SVOM (2022) XRISM (2022) K-EUSO (2023) Solar-C (2023) LORD (2024) JASMINE (2024) SPHEREx (2024) Xuntian (2024) Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission (2025+) Spektr-UV (2025) Roman Space Telescope (2025+) PLATO (2026) LiteBIRD (2027) ARIEL (2028) Spektr-M (2030+) ATHENA (2031) LISA (2034)

Proposed

Arcus AstroSat-2 EXCEDE Fresnel Imager FOCAL HabEx Hayabusa2 Hibari Hypertelescope ILO-1 JEM-EUSO LUCI LUVOIR Lynx Nautilus Deep Space Observatory New Worlds Mission NRO donation to NASA OST PhoENiX Solar-D SPICA THEIA THESEUS

Retired

Akari (Astro-F) (2006–2011) ALEXIS (1993–2005) Alouette 1 (1962–1972) Ariel 1 (1962, 1964) Ariel 2 (1964) Ariel 3 (1967–1969) Ariel 4 (1971–1972) Ariel 5 (1974–1980) Ariel 6 (1979–1982) ASTERIA (2017–2019) ATM (1973–1974) ASCA (Astro-D) (1993–2000) Astro-1 (1990)
BBXRT HUT Astro-2 (HUT) (1995) Astron (1983–1989) ANS (1974–1976) BeppoSAX (1996–2003) CHIPSat (2003–2008) Compton (CGRO) (1991–2000) CoRoT (2006–2013) Cos-B (1975–1982) COBE (1989–1993) DXS (1993) EPOCh (2008) EPOXI (2010) Explorer 11 (1961) EXOSAT (1983–1986) EUVE (1992–2001) FUSE (1999–2007) Kvant-1 (1987–2001) GALEX (2003–2013) Gamma (1990–1992) Ginga (Astro-C) (1987–1991) Granat (1989–1998) Hakucho (CORSA-b) (1979–1985) HALCA (MUSES-B) (1997–2005) HEAO-1 (1977–1979) Herschel (2009–2013) Hinotori (Astro-A) (1981–1991) HEAO-2 (Einstein Obs.) (1978–1982) HEAO-3 (1979–1981) HETE-2 (2000–2008) Hipparcos (1989–1993) IUE (1978–1996) IRAS (1983) IRTS (1995–1996) ISO (1996–1998) IXAE (1996–2004) Kepler (2009–2018) Kristall (1990–2001) LEGRI (1997–2002) LISA Pathfinder (2015–2017) MOST (2003–2019) MSX (1996–1997) OAO-2 (1968–1973) OAO-3 (Copernicus) (1972–1981) Orbiting Solar Observatory
OSO 1 OSO B OSO 3 OSO 4 OSO 5 OSO 6 OSO 7 OSO 8 Orion 1 (1971) Orion 2 (1973) PAMELA (2006–2016) PicSat (2018) Planck (2009–2013) RELIKT-1 (1983–1984) R/HESSI (2002–2018) ROSAT (1990–1999) RXTE (1995–2012) SAMPEX (1992–2004) SAS-B (1972–1973) SAS-C (1975–1979) Solwind (1979–1985) Spektr-R (2011–2019) Spitzer (2003-2020) Suzaku (Astro-EII) (2005–2015) Taiyo (SRATS) (1975–1980) Tenma (Astro-B) (1983–1985) Uhuru (1970–1973) Vanguard 3 (1959) WMAP (2001–2010) Yokoh (Solar-A) (1991–2001)

Hibernating
(Mission completed)

SWAS (1998–2005) TRACE (1998–2010)

Lost

OAO-1 (1966) OAO-B (1970) CORSA (1976) OSO C (1965) ABRIXAS (1999) HETE-1 (1996) WIRE (1999) Astro-E (2000) Tsubame (2014–2015) Hitomi (Astro-H) (2016)

Cancelled

AOSO Astro-G Constellation-X Darwin Destiny EChO Eddington FAME FINESSE GEMS HOP IXO JDEM LOFT OSO J OSO K Sentinel SIM & SIMlite SNAP SPOrt TAUVEX TPF XEUS XIPE