About ASTRI

Credits: ASTRI Collaboration

The ASTRI Program was born as a flagship project funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Research, led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), and finalized to the technological development of the next generation of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACT) for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy in the framework of the development of the Cherenkov telescope array Observatory (CTAO). 

The acronym ASTRI stands for Astronomia a Specchi a Tecnologia Replicante Italiana which means Astronomy with mirrors built through Italian replica technology. 

The ASTRI Mini-Array is composed of 9 dual-mirror Schwarzschild-Coudé Cherenkov telescopes being installed at the Observatorio del Teide (Island of Tenerife, Spain) thanks to an agreement between the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC).

The ASTRI Mini-Array will be able to study in great detail relatively bright (~10−12 erg cm−2 s−1 at 10 TeV) sources with an angular resolution of ~3′ and an energy resolution of ~10% at an energy of about 10 TeV.

The ASTRI Mini-Array is expected to improve the current imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes sensitivity in the North for E > few TeV and, at the same time, to operate for a few years before the full completion of planned Cherenkov telescope array observatory (CTAO) North. Therefore, the ASTRI Mini-Array will have a vast discovery space in the field of extreme gamma-rays, up to 100 TeV and beyond very soon.

The most recent refereed papers describing the ASTRI Mini-Array Project are:

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