At Last GLAST
Explanation:
Rising through a billowing cloud of smoke,
a long time ago from a planet very very close by,
this
Delta II rocket
left Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's launch pad 17-B
at 12:05 pm EDT on June 11, 2008.
Snug in the payload section was GLAST, the
Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope.
GLAST's detector technology was developed for use in terrestrial
particle accelerators.
So from orbit, GLAST can detect gamma-rays from
extreme environments above the Earth and across the distant Universe,
including supermassive black holes at the centers of distant
active galaxies, and the sources of powerful
gamma-ray bursts.
Those
formidable
cosmic accelerators achieve energies not attainable
in earthbound laboratories.
Now known as the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope,
on the 10 year anniversary of its launch, let
the Fermi Science Playoffs begin.
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.
