Latest Gamma ray Stories

Homeland security Among terrorism scenarios that raise the most concern are attacks involving nuclear devices or materials. For that reason, technology that can effectively detect smuggled radioactive materials is considered vital to U.S. security. To support the nation's nuclear-surveillance capabilities, researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are developing ways to enhance the radiation-detection devices used at ports, border crossings, airports and elsewhere. The...

[ Watch the Video ] The human eye is crucial to astronomy. Without the ability to see, the luminous universe of stars, planets and galaxies would be closed to us, unknown forever. Nevertheless, astronomers cannot shake their fascination with the invisible. Outside the realm of human vision is an entire electromagnetic spectrum of wonders. Each type of light--­from radio waves to gamma-rays--reveals something unique about the universe. Some wavelengths are best for studying black holes;...

Detectable for only a few seconds but possessing enormous energy, gamma-ray bursts are difficult to capture because their energy does not penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. Now, thanks to an orbiting telescope, astrophysicists are filling in the unknowns surrounding these bursts and uncovering new questions. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, formerly called the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, launched on June 11, 2008. As part of its mission, the telescope records any gamma-ray...

After more than three years in space, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is extending its view of the high-energy sky into a largely unexplored electromagnetic range. On Tuesday, the Fermi team announced its first census of energy sources in this new realm. Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT) scans the entire sky every three hours, continually deepening its portrait of the sky in gamma rays, the most energetic form of light. While the energy of visible light falls between about 2 and 3...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After more than three years in space, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is extending its view of the high-energy sky into a largely unexplored electromagnetic range. Today, the Fermi team announced its first census of energy sources in this new realm. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT) scans the entire sky every three hours, continually deepening its portrait...

Astronomers exploiting six years worth of data from ESA's INTEGRAL mission have pinned down the individual processes contributing to the high-energy Galactic interstellar emission produced by cosmic-ray electrons. Deciphering each of the different physical mechanisms at play at hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray wavelengths represents a crucial step towards an increasingly detailed picture of the population of high-energy particles permeating the Milky Way. Cosmic rays are highly-energetic...

[ Watch the Video ] In early November 1572, observers on Earth witnessed the appearance of a "new star" in the constellation Cassiopeia, an event now recognized as the brightest naked-eye supernova in more than 400 years. It's often called "Tycho's supernova" after the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who gained renown for his extensive study of the object. Now, years of data collected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope reveal that the shattered star's remains shine in...

By combining three layers of detection into one new device, a team of researchers from Japan has proposed a new way to monitor radiation levels at power plant accident sites. The device would be more economical that using different devices to measure different types of radiation, and could limit the exposure times of clean-up workers by taking three measurements simultaneously. Radioactive decay produces three flavors of emissions: alpha, beta, and gamma. Alpha particles comprise 2...

Astrophysicists have detected pulsed gamma-ray emissions from the Crab pulsar with energies that exceed 100 billion electron-volts (GeV). These gamma-ray pulses surpass what current theoretical models of pulsars can explain.  The pulses were detected by the VERITAS telescope array at the Whipple Observatory in Arizona. Nepomuk Otte, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said some researchers had told him he was crazy to even look for pulsar emission in...

  Ray more than a thousand billion times brighter than the sun The brightest gamma ray beam ever created- more than a thousand billion times more brilliant than the sun- has been produced in research led at the University of Strathclyde- and could open up new possibilities for medicine. Physicists have discovered that ultra-short duration laser pulses can interact with ionized gas to give off beams that are so intense they can pass through 20 cm of lead and would take 1.5 m of...