Magic in the Air: Astronomers are building an array of intriguing telescopes that will enable them to detect the highest-energy gamma rays -- from the ground.

The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) is being built by astronomers to detect high-energy gamma rays from the ground. It will consist of 64 telescopes split between two locations, one in the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma and the other in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. These telescopes use an imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope (IACT) design, allowing them to quickly reposition and capture transient events like gamma-ray bursts. Once completed, the CTAO will be the most sensitive instrument for studying high-energy phenomena in the universe. The Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) project, led by a team of researchers, constructed a 17-meter telescope on La Palma to observe gamma rays with energies below 100 GeV. MAGIC, along with other projects like VERITAS and HESS, has made significant discoveries in high-energy astrophysics, including detecting gamma-ray bursts and identifying sources of cosmic neutrinos. The construction of the CTAO is currently underway and will be the largest and most sensitive gamma-ray detector in the world. [Extracted from the article]