 Artistic rendering of COSI | |
| Names | COSI SMEX-17 |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Gamma-ray astronomy |
| Operator | University of California, Berkeley NASA |
| Website | https://cosi.ssl.berkeley.edu/ |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | COSI |
| Payload mass | < 400 kg |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | August 2027 (planned)[1] |
| Rocket | Falcon 9[1] |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station[1] |
| Contractor | SpaceX[1] |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
| Regime | Low Earth orbit |
| Main Germanium detectors | |
| Name | Compton telescope |
| Collecting area | 25% field of view of the sky |
| Transponders | |
| Band | Gamma Rays |
| Bandwidth | 0.2–5 MeV |
 Logo of COSI with all the participating institutions. | |
The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a NASA SMEX astrophysics mission that will launch a soft gamma-ray telescope (0.2–5 MeV) in 2027.[2][3] It is a wide-field compact Compton telescope (CCT) that is uniquely suited to investigate the "MeV gap" (0.1–10 MeV).[4] It provides imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry of astrophysical sources, and its germanium detectors provide excellent energy resolution for emission line measurements.[5]
The germanium detectors have an instantaneous field of view of more than 25% of the sky, and they are surrounded on the sides and bottom by active shields, which provide background rejection while also allowing for detection of gamma-ray bursts and other gamma-ray flares across the majority of the sky.[5]
- ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference
:0was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "COSI". NASA. 16 June 2023. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
- ^ "NASA Selects Gamma-ray Telescope to Chart Milky Way Evolution". NASA. 18 October 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ McEnery, Julie; et al. (2019). "All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory: Exploring the Extreme Multimessenger Universe". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 51 (7): 245. arXiv:1907.07558. Bibcode:2019BAAS...51g.245M.
- ^ a b Tomsick, John A.; et al. (2023). "The Compton Spectrometer and Imager". arXiv:2308.12362 [astro-ph.HE].
