Göttingen 2012 – scientific programme
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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 92: Gammaastronomie 4
T 92.5: Talk
Thursday, March 1, 2012, 17:45–18:00, ZHG 008
Discovery of VHE gamma-ray emission from the direction of the globular cluster Terzan 5 — •Wilfried Domainko1, Andre-Claude Clapson2, Francois Brun1, Peter Eger3, Marek Jamrozy4, and Michal Dyrda5 — 1Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, P.O. Box 103980, D 69029 Heidelberg, Germany — 2EIPOD fellow, Cell Biology and Biophysics & Developmental Biology Units, EMBL Heidelberg, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg — 3Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg, Physikalisches Institut, Erwin-Rommel-Str. 1, D 91058 Erlangen, Germany — 4Obserwatorium Astronomiczne, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, ul. Orla 171, 30-244 Krakow, Poland — 5Instytut Fizyki Jadrowej PAN, ul. Radzikowskiego 152, 31-342 Krakow, Poland
Globular clusters are old stellar systems which exhibit very-high stellar densities in their cores. The globular cluster Terzan 5 is characterized by a high stellar encounter rate and hosts the largest detected population of millisecond pulsars. It also features bright GeV gamma-ray emission and extended X-ray radiation. However, no globular clusters have been detected in very-high-energy gamma rays (VHE, E > 100 GeV) so far. In order to investigate this possibility Terzan 5 has been observed with the H.E.S.S. telescope array in this energy band. The discovery of a source of VHE gamma rays from the direction of this globular cluster will be reported. The results of the VHE analysis and a multi-wavelength view of Terzan 5 will be presented in this contribution. No counterpart or model can fully explain the observed morphology of the detected VHE gamma-ray source.