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…
Gamma Ray
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…
Fermi Views Blazar 3C 279’s Record Gamma-Ray Flare
NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and other satellites have recorded a record flare from a black hole at the center of the distant galaxy 3C…