Whole Earth Blazar Telescope

Thanks to their different geographic location all around the world, the emission variations of the pointed source can be monitored 24 hours a day, with the observing task moving from east to west as the Earth rotates.

The multi-wavelength studies performed by the WEBT have the purpose of understanding the physical mechanisms that rule the variable emission of these celestial objects.

This emission mainly comes from a plasma jet pointing closely to the line of sight, and originating from a supermassive black hole located in the core of the host galaxy.

The WEBT was founded in autumn 1997 by John Mattox, from the Institute of Astrophysical Research at the Boston University, as a collaboration among optical observers.

The Campaign Manager is responsible for the observing strategy, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and finally takes care of the publication of the results.