KTH space research shown on new Swedish stamps
Sweden Post are celebrating the International Astronomy Year 2009 by issuing stamps with a space theme. The images on the stamps are of the PoGOLite, the product of an international cooperation project led by Mark Pearce, Professor at KTH.
PoGOLite is an instrument that will be sent up by balloon from the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden to measure radiation from space. The astronomy stamps consist of two different designs, both inspired by PoGOLite.
One stamp shows a schematic picture of the instrument. The other illustrates how the instrument measures radiation from the Crab Nebula which is the remains of a supernova in the constellation of Taurus.
In addition to the Crab Nebula, the PoGOLite will search for polarisation in radiation from several of the universe’s most exciting objects: neutron stars, active galaxy nuclei and the gas that falls into black holes. In many of these cases the PoGOLite will make the first of this type of measurement ever.
PoGOLite is an international project with participants from Sweden, Japan, USA and France. The Swedish contingent consists of researchers from KTH and Stockholm University. Thanks to support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish National Space Board and the Swedish Research Council this group play a leading role in the project.
“We are looking forward to the summer of 2010 when PoGOLite will open up a new window on the universe. It is especially pleasing that this will occur thanks to a project led from Sweden and that the instrument will be launched from Esrange,” says Professor Mark Pearce of the Department of Particle and Astroparticle Physics at KTH.
The stamps have been designed by Einar Åkerlind. The attached text has been written by Magnus Axelsson, Astronomist at the Astronomy Department, Stockholm University.
Christer Gummeson