Fermi records gamma ray map of sky

The Third Fermi Symposium in Rome has unveiled the latest results of the Fermi space telescope including the most detailed gamma ray map of the sky. The map, which represents the universe’s most violent and extreme processes, has been prepared using Gamma rays the highest-energy light millions of times more energetic than visible light.

Launched in 2008, the telescope gathers up a full scan of the sky every three hours, providing scientists with 40 million bits of information each second that it beams back to the Earth.

One of its two instruments, the Large Area Telescope (Fermi-Lat), has already identified some 1,400 gamma ray sources, the state-funded BBC reported.

Its Gamma Ray Burst Monitor has also caught hundreds of the bursts - occasional outpourings of gamma ray energy that can release more energy in hours than the Sun will ever produce.

“When you look at the Universe with gamma-ray eyes what you’re seeing is the ‘extreme Universe’,” said Fermi project scientist Julie McEnery.

“You’re looking at things where there’s enormous acceleration, enormous energy. We see neutron stars, we see supermassive black holes, we see particles moving at close to the speed of light smashing into gas in our galaxy,” she added.

The data collected by Fermi promise new physics, suggesting that there are certainly unidentified gamma ray sources that might represent new kinds of celestial objects. Scientists also hope for new clues about the dark matter which is believed to make up the majority of the mass of the Universe.

“Dark matter is an excellent example of the kind of new physics that Fermi is sensitive to,” said deputy principal investigator for Fermi-Lat Steven Ritz.

“We know it must be a form of matter that is unlike the stuff we know about in our theories of particle physics - it must have different properties,” he added.

“Theories that go beyond what we currently see tend very neatly to predict the existence of particles that... when they meet each other can undergo a process that generates gamma rays.”

Fermi can provide data on solar flares and coronal mass ejections helping experts to protect satellites and astronauts against the particles pushed out by the shock wave.

“The point with Fermi is that it’s so sensitive it’s likely going to pick up events never seen before,” said Gerald Share, a high-energy astrophysicist from the University of Maryland.