Posted January 9, 2012
Fermi Telescope's Detection of Antimatter Particles Continues to Make Waves
A paper detailing how a SLAC-led research team turned a Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope instrument into an electron-positron detector has garnered the cover of Physical Review Letters, a highly-respected journal published by the American Physical Society.
Read more ...
Posted December 14, 2011
Fermi Telescope Shows that Tycho's Star Shines in Gamma Rays
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.
Read more ...
Posted November 29, 2011
In the Heart of Cygnus, NASA's Fermi Reveals Cosmic-ray Cocoon
A study in the Nov. 25 edition of the journal Science, using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, finds that tumult in a star-forming region named "Cygnus X" has managed to corral fast-moving particles called cosmic rays.
Read more ...
Posted November 23, 2011
Fermi Space Telescope Q&A
This YouTube video combines a trio of visualizations from Goddard Space Flight Center to describe how the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope—built and operated in part by SLAC—is shedding light on some of the most violent processes in the...
Posted November 4, 2011
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Finds Youngest Millisecond Pulsar, 100 Pulsars To Date
An international team of scientists using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, has discovered a surprisingly powerful millisecond pulsar that challenges existing theories about how these objects form. At the same time, another team has located nine new gamma-ray pulsars in Fermi data, using improved analytical techniques.
Read more ...
Posted October 26, 2011
Seen Around SLAC: Fermi Telescope Model Flies Over Kavli Lobby
A half-sized Fermi space telescope model, originally launched from SLAC's booth at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, last year in New Orleans, has settled into a new orbit above the downstairs foyer at the Kavli Auditorium. The model was made by SLAC Scientific Computing staffer Tofigh Azemoon ...
Read more ...
Posted October 12, 2011
Fermi-LAT Designer Awarded 2012 Panofsky Prize
William Atwood, a leading member of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope collaboration, will receive the 2012 W. K. H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics from the American Physical Society for his work as co-designer of the Large Area Telescope, the main instrument on Fermi, and for using the LAT to investigate the universe in gamma rays.
Read more ...
Posted September 12, 2011
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Confirms Puzzling Preponderance of Positrons
By finding a clever way to use the Earth itself as a scientific instrument, members of a SLAC-led research team turned the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope into a positron detector – and confirmed a startling discovery from 2009 that found an excess of these antimatter particles in cosmic rays, a possible sign of dark matter.
Posted September 9, 2011
Fermi's Latest Gamma-ray Census Highlights Cosmic Mysteries
Every three hours, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope scans the sky and deepens its portrait of the high-energy universe. Every year, the satellite's scientists, many at SLAC, reanalyze all of the data it has collected, exploiting updated analysis methods to tease out new sources. These relatively steady sources are in addition to the numerous transient events Fermi detects.
Read more ...
Posted June 29, 2011
Fermi News: 'Odd Couple' Binary Makes Dual Gamma-ray Flares
What happens when a giant star, many times hotter and more massive than the sun, has a close encounter with a much smaller object that could be a failed star, a fast-spinning pulsar or even a black hole? It happens every 3.4 years in the southern constellation Crux, where this odd and unlikely binary system resides. Scientists who watched the last encounter with the SLAC-built Large Area Telescope, the main instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, got a surprise.
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA | Operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Dept. of Energy Office of Science