From 10-13th September, more than 70 scientists from 12 countries gathered at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik (MPIK) in Heidelberg to discuss the next steps for the SWGO project, following the selection of the SWGO site in August. SWGO (Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory), will be built at 4.8 km above sea level in the Atacama Astronomical Park in Chile. SWGO will use tanks of water equipped with very sensitive light detectors, to measure the 'showers' of high energy particles produced by astrophysical gamma-rays. As the first instrument of this type in the southern hemisphere, SWGO unveils half of the sky at the very high energy ranges from tera electron volt (TeV, 10^12) to peta electron volt (PeV, 10^15) energies for the first time, complementing pointed instruments like H.E.S.S. and CTA. Jim Hinton, Director at MPIK and spokesperson of the collaboration, reported on the excitement at this meeting "Having chosen the excellent Pampa La Bola site for SWGO, the whole collaboration is very enthusiastic to start developing the site and deploying the highest ever gamma-ray observatory". At the Heidelberg meeting the collaboration made several critical choices on the design of the individual water Cherenkov detector units. The next meeting, and the start of a new phase for the project, will take place in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile in April next year.
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