2023年9月6日 HESS Telescopes Explore the High-Energy Sky Credit & Copyright: Video Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai (TWAN), H.E.S.S. Collaboration; Music: Ibaotu catalog number 1044988 (Used with permission) Explanation: They may look like modern mechanical dinosaurs, but they are enormous swiveling eyes that watch the sky. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Observatory is composed of four 12-meter reflecting-mirror telescopes surrounding a larger telescope housing a 28-meter mirror. They are designed to detect strange flickers of blue light — Cherenkov radiation –emitted when charged particles move slightly faster than the speed of light in air. This light is emitted when a gamma ray from a distant source strikes a molecule in Earth’s atmosphere and starts a charged-particle shower. H.E.S.S. is sensitive to some of the highest…