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The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) was designed primarily for the study of gamma-ray bursts. BATSE consists of eight detector modules situated at the corners of the GRO spacecraft. Each module contains a Large-Area Detector (LAD) optimized for sensitivity and a Spectroscopy Detector (SD) optimized for spectral resolution. Signals from the detectors are sent to the Central Electronics Unit (CEU), which detects gamma-ray bursts and constructs data types with a range of spectral and temporal resolutions. By comparing the relative count rates among the eight detectors, the direction to a burst can be determined. The most interesting result obtained so far is that the spatial distribution of the burst sources is not consistent with any known galactic component. BATSE also continuously monitors the intensity of hard X-rays from several celestial sources, using the Earth as an occulting disk. In this way, several flaring episodes of known sources have been detected, and a new transient source, GRO J0422+32, was discovered.

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