First Gamma-ray-only Pulsar Observation Opens New Window On Stellar Evolution
Thursday, October 16, 2008 - 15:21
in Astronomy & Space
About three times a second, a 10,000-year-old stellar corpse sweeps a beam of gamma-rays toward Earth. This object, known as a pulsar, is the first one known to "blink" only in gamma rays, and was discovered by the Large Area Telescope onboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.