COMPTEL Reloaded: a heritage project in MeV astronomy

Understand

COMPTEL was the Compton telescope on NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory CGRO launched in April 1991 and which was re-entered in June 2000.

• COMPTEL covered the energy range 0.75 to 30 MeV, and performed a full-sky survey which is still unique in this range, with no followup mission yet approved.
• This remains a major uncharted region, and the heritage data from COMPTEL are still our main source of information.
• Data analysis has continued at MPE however, since the data were never fully analysed during the mission or in the period following, and improvements in analysis techniques and computer power make this possible.