TY - JOUR A1 - Abeysekara, A. U. A1 - Archer, A. A1 - Benbow, Wystan A1 - Bird, Ralph A1 - Brill, A. A1 - Brose, Robert A1 - Buchovecky, M. A1 - Calderon-Madera, D. A1 - Christiansen, J. L. A1 - Cui, W. A1 - Daniel, M. K. A1 - Falcone, A. A1 - Feng, Q. A1 - Fernandez-Alonso, M. A1 - Finley, J. P. A1 - Fortson, Lucy A1 - Furniss, Amy A1 - Gent, A. A1 - Giuri, C. A1 - Gueta, O. A1 - Hanna, David A1 - Hassan, T. A1 - Hervet, Oliver A1 - Holder, J. A1 - Hughes, G. A1 - Humensky, T. B. A1 - Johnson, Caitlin A. A1 - Kaaret, P. A1 - Kertzman, M. A1 - Kieda, David A1 - Krause, Maria A1 - Krennrich, F. A1 - Kumar, S. A1 - Lang, M. J. A1 - Maier, Gernot A1 - Moriarty, P. A1 - Mukherjee, Reshmi A1 - Nievas-Rosillo, M. A1 - Ong, R. A. A1 - Pfrang, Konstantin Johannes A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Prado, R. R. A1 - Pueschel, Elisa A1 - Quinn, J. A1 - Ragan, K. A1 - Reynolds, P. T. A1 - Ribeiro, D. A1 - Richards, G. T. A1 - Roache, E. A1 - Rovero, A. C. A1 - Sadeh, Iftach A1 - Santander, M. A1 - Sembroski, G. H. A1 - Shahinyan, Karlen A1 - Sushch, Iurii A1 - Svraka, T. A1 - Weinstein, A. A1 - Wells, R. M. A1 - Wilcox, Patrick A1 - Wilhelm, Alina A1 - Williams, David Arnold A1 - Williamson, T. J. A1 - Zitzer, B. T1 - Measurement of the Extragalactic Background Light Spectral Energy Distribution with VERITAS JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics N2 - The extragalactic background light (EBL), a diffuse photon field in the optical and infrared range, is a record of radiative processes over the universe?s history. Spectral measurements of blazars at very high energies (>100 GeV) enable the reconstruction of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the EBL, as the blazar spectra are modified by redshift- and energy-dependent interactions of the gamma-ray photons with the EBL. The spectra of 14 VERITAS-detected blazars are included in a new measurement of the EBL SED that is independent of EBL SED models. The resulting SED covers an EBL wavelength range of 0.56?56 ?m, and is in good agreement with lower limits obtained by assuming that the EBL is entirely due to radiation from cataloged galaxies. KW - Extragalactic astronomy KW - Active galactic nuclei KW - Diffuse radiation KW - Cosmology Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab4817 SN - 0004-637X SN - 1538-4357 VL - 885 IS - 2 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Benbow, W. A1 - Bird, R. A1 - Brill, A. A1 - Brose, Robert A1 - Chromey, A. J. A1 - Daniel, M. K. A1 - Feng, Q. A1 - Finley, J. P. A1 - Fortson, L. A1 - Furniss, A. A1 - Gillanders, G. H. A1 - Giuri, C. A1 - Gueta, O. A1 - Hanna, D. A1 - Halpern, J. P. A1 - Hassan, Tarek A1 - Holder, J. A1 - Hughes, G. A1 - Humensky, T. B. A1 - Joyce, Amy M. A1 - Kaaret, P. A1 - Kar, P. A1 - Kelley-Hoskins, N. A1 - Kertzman, M. A1 - Kieda, D. A1 - Krause, M. A1 - Lang, M. J. A1 - Lin, T. T. Y. A1 - Maier, Gernot A1 - Matthews, N. A1 - Moriarty, P. A1 - Mukherjee, R. A1 - Nieto, D. A1 - Nievas-Rosillos, M. A1 - Ong, R. A. A1 - Park, N. A1 - Petrashyk, A. A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Pueschel, Elisa A1 - Quinn, John A1 - Ragan, K. A1 - Reynolds, P. T. A1 - Richards, G. T. A1 - Roache, E. A1 - Rulten, C. A1 - Sadeh, Iftach A1 - Santander, M. A1 - Sembroski, G. H. A1 - Shahinyan, K. A1 - Sushch, Iurii A1 - Wakely, S. P. A1 - Wells, R. M. A1 - Wilcox, P. A1 - Wilhelm, Alina A1 - Williams, David A. A1 - Williamson, T. J. T1 - Direct measurement of stellar angular diameters by the VERITAS Cherenkov telescopes JF - Nature astronomy N2 - The angular size of a star is a critical factor in determining its basic properties1. Direct measurement of stellar angular diameters is difficult: at interstellar distances stars are generally too small to resolve by any individual imaging telescope. This fundamental limitation can be overcome by studying the diffraction pattern in the shadow cast when an asteroid occults a star2, but only when the photometric uncertainty is smaller than the noise added by atmospheric scintillation3. Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes used for particle astrophysics observations have not generally been exploited for optical astronomy due to the modest optical quality of the mirror surface. However, their large mirror area makes them well suited for such high-time-resolution precision photometry measurements4. Here we report two occultations of stars observed by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS)5 Cherenkov telescopes with millisecond sampling, from which we are able to provide a direct measurement of the occulted stars’ angular diameter at the ≤0.1 mas scale. This is a resolution never achieved before with optical measurements and represents an order of magnitude improvement over the equivalent lunar occultation method6. We compare the resulting stellar radius with empirically derived estimates from temperature and brightness measurements, confirming the latter can be biased for stars with ambiguous stellar classifications. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0741-z SN - 2397-3366 VL - 3 IS - 6 SP - 511 EP - 516 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER -