| [00:00:00.00] | (Music throughout) |
| [00:00:04.00] | |
| [00:00:06.00] | This pulsar’s vast gamma-ray halo may explain a key observation about antimatter near Earth. |
| [00:00:14.00] | [Big Dipper to scale] |
| [00:00:21.00] | Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, the superdense remnants of supernovae explosions. |
| [00:00:29.00] | |
| [00:00:33.00] | NASA’s Fermi mission has observed one nearby pulsar, Geminga, for more than 10 years. |
| [00:00:40.00] | |
| [00:00:43.00] | The data are now so detailed that when scientists remove background sources… |
| [00:00:50.00] | …Geminga’s faint but huge gamma-ray halo emerges. |
| [00:00:57.00] | |
| [00:00:58.00] | This halo precisely matches computer models that account for positron production. |
| [00:01:05.00] | |
| [00:01:07.00] | Positrons are antimatter versions of electrons. They’re found near Earth but have no clear origin. |
| [00:01:14.00] | |
| [00:01:17.00] | Scientists suspected pulsars to be positron sources. This study confirms it. |
| [00:01:25.00] | As it turns out, Geminga is likely the greatest positron source for Earth. |
| [00:01:33.00] | It alone could produce 20% of the positrons at an energy of 1 TeV seen in orbit. |
| [00:01:41.00] | So pulsars not only shine in the highest-energy light, they also glow in antimatter. |
| [00:01:49.00] | |
| [00:01:53.00] | [Explore, Solar System & Beyond] |
| [00:01:58.00] | [NASA] |