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Incoming links: Herbert Gursky
Francis Rudolph Paolini Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
An experimental physicist who contributed to the 1962 rocket experiment reported with Riccardo Giacconi, Herbert Gursky and Bruno Benedetto Rossi. The payload used large-area Geiger counters with thin mica windows to detect soft X-rays; surrounding scintillation counters rejected charged-particle background. As the rocket rotated, the detectors scanned the sky and found a strong directional excess. The result supplied early evidence for X-ray sources outside the Solar system.[ref]
Evidence for x Rays From Sources Outside the Solar System by Riccardo Giacconi and others. Printed pp. 439–440: detector windows, anticoincidence shielding, sky scan and count-rate peak
Herbert Gursky Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
Herbert Gursky coauthored the 1962 rocket experiment that detected X-rays from beyond the Solar system. Large-area counters carried above the absorbing atmosphere recorded a strong celestial source as well as a more diffuse background.
The payload's changing direction allowed count rate to be compared with sky direction, separating a localized source from broadly distributed counts. The experiment opened X-ray astronomy to objects whose energetic emission could not be measured by ordinary ground-based optical observations.[ref]
Evidence for x Rays From Sources Outside the Solar System by Riccardo Giacconi and others. Author list and pp. 439–443: rocket counters, directional count rates and extrasolar radiation