The Gamma Ray Sky
Explanation:
What if you could "see" gamma rays?
If you could,
the sky would seem to be filled
with a shimmering high-energy glow from the most exotic
and
mysterious objects in the Universe.
In the early 1990s
NASA's orbiting Compton Observatory,
produced this premier vista of the entire
sky in gamma rays
- photons with more than 40 million times
the energy of visible light.
The diffuse gamma-ray glow from the plane of
our Milky Way Galaxy runs horizontally through the false color image.
The brightest spots in the galactic plane (left of center)
are
pulsars - spinning magnetized neutron stars
formed in
the violent crucibles of stellar explosions.
Above and below the plane,
quasars,
believed to be powered by supermassive
black holes, produce gamma-ray beacons at the edges of the universe.
The
nature of many
of the
fainter sources remains unknown.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
