Fermi Explores Supernova Remnants

  • Released Saturday, February 13, 2010
  • Updated Monday, September 13, 2021 at 9:15AM
  • ID: 10566
Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT) resolved gamma rays with energies a billion times greater than that of visible light from supernova remnants of different ages and in different environments. W51C, W44 and IC 443 are middle-aged remnants between 4,000 and 30,000 years old. The youngest remnant, Cassiopeia A, is only 330 years old and appears to the LAT as a point source. The images bring astronomers a step closer to understanding the source of some of the universe's most energetic particles — cosmic rays. The emissions are likely the result of accelerated protons interacting with nearby gas clouds, but other possibilities have not been eliminated. Astrophysicists believe that supernova remnants are the galaxy's best candidate sites for cosmic-ray acceleration. These observations provide further validation to the notion that supernova remnants act as enormous accelerators for cosmic particles.

Supernova Remnant video showing specific remnants and their appearance at different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.

For Photoshop file, click here.

Fermi mapped GeV-gamma-ray emission regions (magenta) in the W44 supernova remnant. The features clearly align with filaments detectable in other wavelengths. This composite merges X-rays (blue) from the Germany-led ROSAT mission, infrared (red) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and radio (orange) from the Very Large Array near Socorro, N.M.For the 42MB Photoshop file click here.Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, CXC/SAO/JPL-Caltech/Steward/O. Krause et al., and NRAO/AUI

Fermi mapped GeV-gamma-ray emission regions (magenta) in the W44 supernova remnant. The features clearly align with filaments detectable in other wavelengths. This composite merges X-rays (blue) from the Germany-led ROSAT mission, infrared (red) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and radio (orange) from the Very Large Array near Socorro, N.M.

For the 42MB Photoshop file click here.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, CXC/SAO/JPL-Caltech/Steward/O. Krause et al., and NRAO/AUI

Cas A multiwavelength viewFor the 38MB Photoshop file click here.Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, ROSAT, JPL-Caltech, and NRAO/AUI

Cas A multiwavelength view

For the 38MB Photoshop file click here.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, ROSAT, JPL-Caltech, and NRAO/AUI

For More Information

See http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/cosmic-rays-source.html

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NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

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Fermi (Collected with the LAT sensor)
Event List

Fermi Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT)

Dataset can be found at: http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov

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