Meet Fermi: Our Eyes On The Gamma-Ray Sky
Meet Fermi: Our Eyes on the Gamma-Ray Sky
Black holes, cosmic rays, neutron stars and even new kinds of physics — for 10 years, data from our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have helped unravel some of the biggest mysteries of the cosmos. And Fermi is far from finished!
On June 11, 2008, at Cape Canaveral in Florida, the countdown started for Fermi, which was called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) at the time.
The telescope was renamed after launch to honor Enrico Fermi, an Italian-American pioneer in high-energy physics who also helped develop the first nuclear reactor.
Fermi has had many other things named after him, like Fermi’s Paradox, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station, the Enrico Fermi Institute, and the synthetic element fermium.
Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory
The Fermi telescope measures some of the highest energy bursts of light in the universe; watching the sky to help scientists answer all sorts of questions about some of the most powerful objects in the universe.
Its main instrument is the Large Area Telescope (LAT), which can view 20% of the sky at a time and makes a new image of the whole gamma-ray sky every three hours. Fermi’s other instrument is the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor. It sees even more of the sky at lower energies and is designed to detect brief flashes of gamma-rays from the cosmos and Earth.
This sky map below is from 2013 and shows all of the high energy gamma rays observed by the LAT during Fermi’s first five years in space. The bright glowing band along the map’s center is our own Milky Way galaxy!
So what are gamma rays?
Well, they’re a form of light. But light with so much energy and with such short wavelengths that we can’t see them with the naked eye. Gamma rays require a ton of energy to produce — from things like subatomic particles (such as protons) smashing into each other.
Here on Earth, you can get them in nuclear reactors and lightning strikes. Here’s a glimpse of the Seattle skyline if you could pop on a pair of gamma-ray goggles. That purple streak? That’s still the Milky Way, which is consistently the brightest source of gamma rays in our sky.
In space, you find that kind of energy in places like black holes and neutron stars. The raindrop-looking animation below shows a big flare of gamma rays that Fermi spotted coming from something called a blazar, which is a kind of quasar, which is different from a pulsar… actually, let’s back this up a little bit.
One of the sources of gamma rays that Fermi spots are pulsars. Pulsars are a kind of neutron star, which is a kind of star that used to be a lot bigger, but collapsed into something that’s smaller and a lot denser. Pulsars send out beams of gamma rays. But the thing about pulsars is that they rotate.
So Fermi only sees a beam of gamma rays from a pulsar when it’s pointed towards Earth. Kind of like how you only periodically see the beam from a lighthouse. These flashes of light are very regular. You could almost set your watch by them!
Quasars are supermassive black holes surrounded by disks of gas. As the gas falls into the black hole, it releases massive amount of energy, including — you guessed it — gamma rays. Blazars are quasars that send out beams of gamma rays and other forms of light — right in our direction.
When Fermi sees them, it’s basically looking straight down this tunnel of light, almost all the way back to the black hole. This means we can learn about the kinds of conditions in that environment when the rays were emitted. Fermi has found about 5,500 individual sources of gamma rays, and the bulk of them have been blazars, which is pretty nifty.
But gamma rays also have many other sources. We’ve seen them coming from supernovas where stars die and from star factories where stars are born. They’re created in lightning storms here on Earth, and our own Sun can toss them out in solar flares.
Gamma rays were in the news last year because of something Fermi spotted at almost the same time as the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and European Gravitational Observatory’s Virgo on August 17, 2017. Fermi, LIGO, Virgo, and numerous other observatories spotted the merger of two neutron stars. It was the first time that gravitational waves and light were confirmed to come from the same source.
Fermi has been looking at the sky for almost 10 years now, and it’s helped scientists advance our understanding of the universe in many ways. And the longer it looks, the more we’ll learn. Discover more about how we’ll be celebrating Fermi’s achievements all year.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
More Posts from Matthewjopdyke and Others
I am thrilled to announce that I have found and am working with a brilliant narrator, a Princeton Alumni, who has a wealthy breadth of experience in the science, technology, and creative industries. • Further than Before: Pathway to the Stars, Part 1, will be released first, followed by Part 2 and the Tome (for those who are patient). Otherwise, Part 1 and Part 2 will help to break down the cost, since the Tome is a half-million-worded heft of a manuscript, for all who dare! • “Life is about to get quite fantastic, and I assure you there is a lot of benevolent purpose behind all of this. For one, we need to preserve life, and in a way that brings joy and meaning to our very being. We need to have the ability to adapt to environments already teeming with life, rather than destroy entire sentient ecosystems wherever we travel. We need to have a healthy and robust focus of love, beauty, and kindness that will allow us to advance civilization in a manner that demonstrates genuine empathy, compassion, and respect for each other’s uniqueness and irreplaceable individuality. We can enjoy our uniqueness while attaining full understanding of each other and mitigating issues that would threaten our existence throughout the cosmos." • ~ Eliza Williams during a very important presidential address to the public, in "Further than Before: Pathway to the Stars, Tome," Chapter 55, "State of the Union" • #thetomechallenge #spaceoperanovels #sciencefictionnovels #politicalsciencefiction #darkmatter #exoticparticles #neuroscience #biotech #nanotech #futurism #matthewopdyke #pathwaytothestars #furtherthanbefore https://www.instagram.com/p/BvtieWwgamY/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1i71kzia7fjkw
Pathway to the Stars: Part 9, Allure & Spacecraft "We cannot engage in human progression as solo artists, alone, and expect long-term and optimal results. While we can inspire momentum for a time, while working diligently, ultimately the laws of chaos will prevail unless we work together to preserve our world, our solar system, and our Universe." ~ Eliza Williams Vesha has completed her Virtual Universe training, and now she becomes immersed in missions and callings as never before! Enjoy as she tackles issues where society seems muddled in the chains of self-bondage, rather than moving forward with a bright and beautiful future for all. Joanne revisits a problem that can affect Eliza Williams' hopes for the future. Among Eliza's many goals within the Solar System to that end, related to space travel, is the construction of spacecraft being built just above Pluto! Enjoy this Space Opera as Eliza continues her quest to nurture humanity into a space-faring, world-preserving, and Universe-exploring civilization! She believes that the most significant step toward moving forward is kindness, and that kindness is the greatest strength we have! ISBN: 978-1951321093 LCCN: 2019918425eBook: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B081XLG9JV Paperback: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/195132109X For more info: https://www.mjopublications.com https://smile.amazon.com/author/matthewopdyke Tags: #sciencefiction #scifi #spaceopera #fantasy #stem #astronomy #sentience #spacecraft #spaceelevator #wellbeing #author #matthewjopdyke #ebook #paperback #amazon
You’re looking at a real big deal.
Because in a nanotechnology lab, big deals come in smaller and smaller packages. What you see above is an extreme close-up of a 5 nanometer transistor. In an industry-first, the IBM Research Alliance developed nanosheet transistors that will enable a 5 nm chip. What’s so big about that? Well, by achieving a scale of 30 billion switches on a fingernail sized chip, it can deliver significant enhancements over today’s state-of-the-art 10 nm chips. This not only improves the performance of current technologies but also provides the fuel for the future demands of AI, VR, quantum and mobile technologies to run on. Plus, it could also make things like smartphone batteries last 2-3x longer between charges, so it may also be a real lifesaver too.
Learn more about it->
Please enjoy my new sci-fi fantasy novel currently available on Amazon! Further than Before: Pathway to the Stars (2 book series) amazon.com/author/matthewopdyke #scififantasy #spaceopera #sciencefiction #fantasy #mustread #scifinovels #fantasynovels #biotechnology #nanotechnology #theoreticalphysics #physics #darkmatter #utopian #strongfemalelead https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo1Z9Xlg2uc/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1rhtcswancrx1
Solar System: Things to Know the August Eclipse
We’re counting down until the August 21 total solar eclipse that will be visible across most of North America. Here are some things you can do to prepare.
1. Find A Spot
The eclipse should be visible to some extent across the continental U.S. Here’s map of its path.
Our eclipse page can help you find the best viewing locations by longitude and latitude: eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2017Aug21Tgoogle.html
2. Citizen Science
Want to know more about citizen science projects? Find a list of citizen science projects for the eclipse: https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/citizen-science
3. Never look directly at the sun! Even during the early phases of the eclipse!
Get your eclipse viewing safety glasses beforehand: eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety
4. Get Our Interactive Eclipse Module App
In this interactive, 3D simulation of the total eclipse on August 21, 2017, you can see a view of the eclipse from anywhere on the planet:
http://eyes.jpl.nasa.gov/eyes-on-eclipse.html
5. Got questions?
Join the conversation on social media. Tag your posts: #Eclipse2017.
Twitter: @NASASolarSystem, @NASA, @NASASunEarth Facebook: NASA Solar System
Discover the full list of 10 things to know about our solar system this week HERE.
Follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
@shanrel @delosveronesi @woodbscinpsy-blog @sonictantra @akatsuki-deidara-katsu
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I am pleased to announce a NEW RELEASE to my Space Opera series. It is now available on Amazon in ebook and paperback formats!
Pathway to the Stars: Part 4, Universal Party
Autographed copies of printed material are available for direct purchase on the author website at:
https://www.ftb-pathway-publications.com
Thank you, Kim, for putting this together!
All three versions (chill, rock, orchestra) Further than Before: Pathway to the Stars, Part 1 -- Audible “Nature and humanity can be amazing, but likewise, it can be brutal. Brutality, as far too many know it, is unnecessary if we consider and implement one thing, innovation with purpose—a good purpose is brutality’s ideal replacement, and it comes minus unnecessary misery. It’s starting to become clear to me now what it is that we can do and how we can do it.” - Eliza Williams to Yesha Alevtina (Further than Before: Pathway to the Stars, Part 1) #books #sciencefictionbooks #SpaceOpera #scifi #ftbpathwaypublications #grahambessellieu #matthewjopdyke #politicalsciencefiction https://www.instagram.com/p/BxGfu74g5Vb/?igshid=16f1jd0ctbwq
To all women, who dedicate hours on end toward helping others with little thought of reward in return -- you are a blessing in the lives of all you meet. For that, I wish you a Happy Mother's day! https://www.instagram.com/p/CAArmv5A7C8/?igshid=1v92oi99tgo35
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