Universe  ID: 11915

Big Flare

Story by Francis Reddy Released on July 21, 2015
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NASA's Fermi satellite sees record flare from a black hole in a galaxy 5 billion light-years away.
3C 279 is a famous blazar, a galaxy whose high-energy activity is powered by a central supermassive black hole weighing up to a billion times the sun's mass and roughly the size of our planetary system. As matter falls toward the black hole, some particles race away at nearly the speed of light along a pair of jets pointed in opposite directions. Five billion years ago, a great disturbance rocked a region near the monster black hole at the center of the galaxy. On June 14, 2015, the pulse of high-energy light produced by this event finally arrived at Earth, setting off detectors aboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The satellite scans the sky for gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. Between June 14 and 17, it observed a shower of gamma rays streaming from 3C 279. According to scientists, the flare was the most dynamic the satellite has ever seen. Watch the video to see a visualization of the gamma rays detected by Fermi.
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Gamma rays are represented as circles in this video. Energy is indicated by a circle's max size and its color, with white lowest and magenta highest.
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This image shows the high-energy light from galaxy 3C 279 observed by Fermi between June 14 and 17, 2015.
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This image shows how the gamma-ray sky looked before the galaxy's flare event (left) and during (right).
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NASA's Fermi satellite orbits 350 miles above Earth, searching the sky for gamma rays.
 

Related Story

Fermi Spots a Record Flare from Blazar 3C 279

For More Information

NASA.gov

Story Credits

Lead Producer:
Scott Wiessinger (USRA)

Lead Writer:
Francis Reddy (Syneren Technologies)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Blazar video and images courtesy of NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
Fermi satellite image courtesy of NASA/GFSC

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11915

Keywords:
SVS >> Astrophysics
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Universe