NASA Brings Galactic Cosmic Rays to Earth to Study Biological Effects and Health Risks
To better understand and mitigate the health risks faced by astronauts from exposure to space radiation, we ideally need to be able to test the…
Gamma Ray
What Powers the Most Energetic Explosions in the Universe?
The physical process driving Gamma-Ray Bursts might be synchrotron radiation after all. A new analysis of Fermi/GBM archival data of gamma-ray bursts (GRB), the most…
Caught in Afterglow of a Dying Star: Most Powerful Light in the Universe
First Detection of Inverse Compton Emission From Dying Gamma-Ray Burst A dying star emits intense flashes of light called a gamma-ray burst. Most days, the…
Powerful Pulsating Gamma Rays Emitted From Neutron Star Rotating an Incredible 707 Times a Second
Second fastest spinning radio pulsar known is a gamma-ray pulsar, too. Multi-messenger observations look closely at the system and raise new questions. An international research…
Astronomers Pinpoint Origin of Photons in Mysterious Gamma-Ray Bursts
Scientists from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research and collaborators have used simulations to show that the photons emitted by long gamma-ray bursts–one of the…
Astronomers Study Enduring ‘Radio Rebound’ from Gamma-Ray Burst 161219B
In the blink of an eye, a massive star more than 2 billion light-years away lost a million-year-long fight against gravity and collapsed, triggering a…
Research Shows Gamma-Ray Bursts Follow Binary Neutron Star Mergers
Researchers at Oregon State University have confirmed that last fall’s union of two neutron stars did in fact cause a short gamma-ray burst. The findings,…
New Model Supports Connection Between Gamma Ray Bursts and Supernovae
A “core-collapse” supernova occurs when the iron core of a massive star collapses under the force of gravity and then rebounds, generating pressure waves and…
New Theory Reveals Unified Origin for Extreme-Energy Space Particles
New model connects the origins of very high-energy neutrinos, ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, and high-energy gamma rays with black-hole jets embedded in their environments. One of…
How Gamma-Rays from Lightning Produce Radioisotopes and Positrons
A storm system approaches: the sky darkens, and the low rumble of thunder echoes from the horizon. Then without warning… Flash! Crash! — lightning has…
HAWC Collaboration Sheds Light on Antimatter Puzzle
A mountaintop observatory about four hours east of Mexico City, built and operated by an international team of scientists, has captured the first wide-angle view…
Astronomers Reveal a High-Energy Trap in Our Galaxy’s Center
New research reveals that the center of our Milky Way contains a “trap” that concentrates some of the highest-energy cosmic rays. A combined analysis of…
Fermi Discovers A Luminous Gamma-Ray Binary
Dive into the Large Magellanic Cloud and see a visualization of LMC P3, an extraordinary gamma-ray binary system discovered by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope….
Chandra Reveals Evidence for Violent Stellar Merger
Using data from Chandra, astronomers have the strongest evidence to date that violent stellar mergers produce pencil-thin jets. This result has implications for estimating the…
Astronomers Identify a Signature of Dark Matter Annihilation
By studying the spatial distribution of gamma-ray emission in the Milky Way, astronomers believe they have identified a signature of dark matter annihilation. We live…
VERITAS Detects Gamma Rays from Distant Galaxy PKS 1441+25
Using the VERITAS array, astronomers have detected gamma rays from a blazar known as PKS 1441+25. The research shows that the source of the gamma…
Shocks in a Distant Gamma-Ray Burst Help Reveal Two General Types of GRBs
New research form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows that shocks in a distant gamma-ray burst originated in a supernova. Gamma ray bursts (GRBs)–flashes of…
A New Class of Magnetar-Powered Supernova
ESO’s La Silla and Paranal Observatories have demonstrated for the first time a link between a very long-lasting burst of gamma rays and an unusually…