NASA's Fermi Mission Sharpens its High-energy View

Tour the best view of the high-energy gamma-ray sky yet seen. This video highlights the plane of our galaxy and identifies objects producing gamma rays with energies greater than 1 TeV.

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

For complete transcript, click here.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This image, constructed from more than six years of observations by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, is the first to show how the entire sky appears at energies between 50 billion (GeV) and 2 trillion electron volts (TeV). For comparison, the energy of visible light falls between about 2 and 3 electron volts. A diffuse glow fills the sky and is brightest in the middle of the map, along the central plane of our galaxy. The famous Fermi Bubbles, first detected in 2010, appear as red extensions north and south of the galactic center and are much more pronounced at these energies. Discrete gamma-ray sources include pulsar wind nebulae and supernova remnants within our galaxy, as well as distant galaxies called blazars powered by supermassive black holes. Labels show the highest-energy sources, all located within our galaxy and emitting gamma rays exceeding 1 TeV.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

This image, constructed from more than six years of observations by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, is the first to show how the entire sky appears at energies between 50 billion (GeV) and 2 trillion electron volts (TeV). For comparison, the energy of visible light falls between about 2 and 3 electron volts. A diffuse glow fills the sky and is brightest in the middle of the map, along the central plane of our galaxy. The famous Fermi Bubbles, first detected in 2010, appear as red extensions north and south of the galactic center and are much more pronounced at these energies. Discrete gamma-ray sources include pulsar wind nebulae and supernova remnants within our galaxy, as well as distant galaxies called blazars powered by supermassive black holes. Unlabeled.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Watch Fermi scientists explain why they're so excited about Pass 8, a complete reprocessing of all data collected by the mission's Large Area Telescope. This analysis increased the LAT's sensitivity, widened its energy range, and effectively sharpened its view through improved backtracking of incoming gamma rays.

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

For complete transcript, click here.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This animation compares two Fermi LAT views of the same region in the constellation Carina. The first comes from an older analysis, known as Pass 7, while the second shows the improvements with Pass 8. Both images contain the same number of gamma rays. In the foreground plot, the tall spikes represent greater concentrations of gamma rays and correspond to brightness. Pass 8 provides more accurate directions for incoming gamma rays, so more of them fall closer to their sources, creating taller spikes and a sharper image.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Tour the best view of the high-energy gamma-ray sky yet seen. This video highlights the plane of our galaxy and identifies supernova remnants.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Still from video

Still from video. No Text.

Fermi Pass 7 image of the Large Magellanic Cloud with inset of Pass 8 data for brightest region.

Fermi Pass 7 image of the Large Magellanic Cloud with inset of Pass 8 data for brightest region. No Text.

Fermi Pass 7 image of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Has bounding box to show area where Pass 8 data is in stills above.

Fermi Pass 7 image of the Large Magellanic Cloud.