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The Burst And Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) serves as the
all-sky monitor for the Compton Observatory, detecting and
locating strong transient sources called gamma-ray bursts as
well as outbursts from other sources over the entire sky. There
are eight BATSE detectors, one facing outward from each corner
of the satellite, which are sensitive to gamma-ray energies from
20 keV to over one thousand keV.
At the heart of the BATSE detectors are NaI crystals which
produce a flash of visible light when struck by gamma rays. The
flashes are recorded by light-sensitive detectors whose output
signal is digitized and analyzed to determine the arrival time
and energy of the gamma ray which caused the flash. Each BATSE
detector unit consists of a large area detector sensitive to
faint transient events along with a smaller detector optimized
for spectroscopic studies of bright events.
Additional information available at
"http://cossc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgro/batse.html"
[Summary provided by NASA]
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