CTA - The Cherenkov Telescope Array

Cherenkov telescope array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array will be a new facility for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy in the energy regime from some 10 GeV to several 100 TeV.

CTA will have an improved sensitivity by an order of magnitude with respect to current instruments, an improved angular and energy resolution, an increased field of view, and will ultimately provide full-sky coverage.

It is intended to operate CTA as an observatory, open to a wide scientific community. In order to provide the performance goals, CTA will consist of about 50-100 telescopes, of about 6 m, 12 m and 24 m diameter.

The development of CTA is conducted by more than 100 groups, from more than 20 countries in Europe and other continents.

To coordinate the development activities, the consortium has setup a central Project Office, which is supported through an FP7 grant by the European Commission, and which is located at the Landessternwarte of the University of Heidelberg.