Gamma-ray
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NASA
Via NASA Plane, Scientists Find New Gamma-ray Emission in Storm Clouds
There’s more to thunderclouds than rain and lightning. Along with visible light emissions, thunderclouds can produce intense bursts of gamma rays, the most energetic form of light, that last for millionths of a second. The clouds can also glow steadily with gamma rays for seconds to minutes at a time. Researchers using NASA airborne platforms have now found a new…
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NASA
Gamma-ray Bursts: Harvesting Knowledge From the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions
The most powerful events in the known universe – gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) – are short-lived outbursts of the highest-energy light. They can erupt with a quintillion (a 10 followed by 18 zeros) times the luminosity of our Sun. Now thought to announce the births of new black holes, they were discovered by accident. Two neutron stars begin to merge in…
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NASA
NASA’s Fermi Traces Source of Cosmic Neutrino to Monster Black Hole
For the first time ever, scientists using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have found the source of a high-energy neutrino from outside our galaxy. This neutrino traveled 3.7 billion years at almost the speed of light before being detected on Earth. This is farther than any other neutrino whose origin scientists can identify. High-energy neutrinos are hard-to-catch particles that scientists…
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