Universe  ID: 10426

Vela Pulsar in Gamma Rays

Released on July 2, 2009
This movie shows pulsed gamma rays from the Vela pulsar as constructed from photons detected by Fermi's Large Area Telescope. The Vela pulsar, which spins 11 times a second, is the brightest persistent source of gamma rays in the sky. The movie includes data from August 4 to Sept. 15, 2008. The bluer color in the latter part of the pulse indicates the presence of gamma rays with energies exceeding a billion electron volts (1 GeV). For comparison, visible light has energies between two and three electron volts. Red indicates gamma rays with energies less than 300 million electron volts (MeV); green, gamma rays between 300 MeV and 1 GeV; and blue shows gamma rays greater than 1 GeV. The movie frame is 30 degrees across. The background, which shows diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Milky Way, is about 15 times brighter here than it actually is.
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This movie shows pulsed gamma rays from the Vela pulsar as constructed from photons detected by Fermi's Large Area Telescope. A single pulsar cycle is repeated four times.

For More Information

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/main/index.html

Credits

Roger Romani (Stanford University): Lead Animator
Roger Romani (Stanford University): Scientist
Lucas Guillemot (CENBG): Scientist
Francis Reddy (SPSYS): Writer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10426

Missions:
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
GLAST
Swift

Data Used:
Swift
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Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
Astrophysics Visualizations

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Spectral/Engineering >> Gamma Ray
SVS >> Astrophysics
SVS >> Universe
SVS >> Pulsar
SVS >> GLAST
SVS >> Gamma Ray Observatory
SVS >> Fermi
NASA Science >> Universe

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0