Latest Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com NASA said that its Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected the highest-energy light ever associated with an eruption on the sun on March 7. The latest discovery, according to the space agency, is echoing in Fermi's new role as a solar observatory, which is a tool that is being used to understand solar outbursts. The March 7 flare was a class X5.4, and is the strongest eruption so far observed by Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT). "For most of Fermi's...

In December 2010, a pair of mismatched stars in the southern constellation Crux whisked past each other at a distance closer than Venus orbits the sun. The system possesses a so-far unique blend of a hot and massive star with a compact fast-spinning pulsar. The pair's closest encounters occur every 3.4 years and each is marked by a sharp increase in gamma rays, the most extreme form of light.The unique combination of stars, the long wait between close approaches, and periods of intense...

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy."What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center," said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who first...

Nearby galaxies undergoing a furious pace of star formation also emit lots of gamma rays, say astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Two so-called "starburst" galaxies, plus a satellite of our own Milky Way galaxy, represent a new category of gamma-ray-emitting objects detected both by Fermi and ground-based observatories."Starburst galaxies have not been accessible in gamma rays before," said Fermi team member Seth Digel, a physicist at SLAC National...

Back in June 1991, just before the launch of NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, astronomers knew of gamma rays from exactly one galaxy beyond our own. To their surprise and delight, the satellite captured similar emissions from dozens of other galaxies. Now its successor, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, is filling in the picture with new finds of its own."Compton showed us that two classes of active galaxies emitted gamma rays -- blazars and radio galaxies," said Luigi...

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope -- able to identify pulsars by gamma-ray emissions -- has provided data for two studies, U.S. officials said. International teams of astronomers say they've analyzed gamma-rays from two dozen pulsars, including 16 discovered by Fermi. A pulsar is the rapidly spinning and highly magnetized core left after a massive star explodes, NASA said. Since the demise of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory a decade ago, we've wondered about the nature of unidentified...

A new class of pulsars detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is solving the mystery of previously unidentified gamma-ray sources and helping scientists understand the mechanisms behind pulsar emissions.A study to be published by an international team of scientists in the July 2 edition of Science Express describes 16 pulsars discovered by Fermi based on their pulsed emissions of high-energy gamma rays. A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star, the dense core left behind after...

An international team of astrophysicists using telescopes on the ground and in space have uncovered surprising changes in radiation emitted by an active galaxy. The picture that emerges from these first-ever simultaneous observations with optical, X-ray and new-generation gamma-ray telescopes is much more complex than scientists expected and challenges current theories of how the radiation is generated.The galaxy in question is PKS 2155-304, a type of object known as a "blazar."...

A new map combining nearly three months of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is giving astronomers an unprecedented look at the high-energy cosmos. To Fermi's eyes, the universe is ablaze with gamma rays from sources within the solar system to galaxies billions of light-years away."Fermi has given us a deeper and better-resolved view of the gamma-ray sky than any previous space mission," said Peter Michelson, the lead scientist for the spacecraft's Large Area...

NASA -- A NASA-funded scientist has produced a new type of picture of the Earth from space, which complements the familiar image of our "blue marble". This new picture is the first detailed image of our planet radiating gamma rays, a type of light that is millions to billions of times more energetic than visible light. The image portrays how the Earth is constantly bombarded by particles from space. These particles, called cosmic rays, hit our atmosphere and produce the gamma-ray...