Abstract
The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT) is a balloon-borne telescope designed to study astrophysical sources of nuclear line emission and polarization at soft gamma-ray (0.2- 10 MeV) energies. The heart ofNCT is an array of 12 cross-strip germanium detectors, designed to provide 3D positions for each photon interaction with full 3D position resolution. Tracking 3D positions enables Compton imaging, effectively reduces background, and enables the measurement of polarization. NCT has a novel, ultracompact design optimized for studying nuclear line emission in the critical 0.5- 2 MeV range, and polarization in the 0.2-0.5 MeV range. The NCT instrument was successfully launched from Fort Sumner, New Mexico on May 17,2009. We will present an overview of the instrument, its major scientific goals and some results from 2009 flight. © 2010 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.