Gamma

A single pancake may capture where you poke a straw into it, but it takes a whole stack to record the straw’s direction. Similarly, Kobe University researchers could accurately image a gamma-ray-emitting pulsar (the sky’s lighthouses) with a stack of radioactivity-sensitive films on a balloon. To be able to tell the orientation of the dangling gondola relative to the stars, they added a star camera and a device to timestamp the gamma-rays’ impacts. Credit: Kobe UniversityA pancake stack of radioactivity-sensitive films…

Most of the light streaming through our Universe is invisible to human eyes.The spectrum ranges from long radio waves to short gamma rays, with the visible part occupying just a tiny slice in the middle. But, thanks to telescope technology, we're able to peer into other slices of the spectrum, and see all the light in the sky.NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope is one such instrument. Gamma radiation is the most energetic light in the cosmos, and it's produced by energetic sources such as supernova remnants, pulsar…

A space telescope scanning the skies for gamma rays has added hundreds of new powerful dead stars to its catalog.The addition of 294 previously unidentified stars means that the Fermi catalog of gamma-ray pulsars now contains more than 340 objects – a significant step up since the Fermi Large Area Telescope started observing in 2008, when there were fewer than 10 known such pulsars.The newly released Third Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-Ray Pulsars is a real treasure trove of information that will help us…

Archaeologists excavated a Bronze Age stela that challenges longstanding interpretations of how the carvings represent gender and social roles in prehistoric times. Credit: Durham University This week's news roundup includes a Bronze Age discovery that calls into question existing ideas of gender representation from the period. More research confirms that bonobos are actually nice. Plus: Actual good climate news?…

Earlier this year, it was reported that the Earth was hit by the brightest gamma-ray bursts seen since the dawn of civilization. Now, a team of astronomers has assigned a value to the energy contained in those blasts and it's staggering to say the least.The gamma-ray burst (GRB) reported in April of this year was actually confirmed by NASA as having struck Earth on October 9, 2022, and having originated about two billion light-years away. The space agency called the occurrence a "1-in-10,000-year event" and said that it…

Besides the Big Bang itself, gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic events in the universe. Astronomers knew of a few mechanisms that can produce them, but now an oddball GRB hints at a brand new origin – a stellar “demolition derby.”As the name suggests, gamma ray bursts are intense pulses of gamma radiation that fire off in beams like a lighthouse. The most common cause is when a massive star collapses into a black hole, but they also occur from collisions between binary stellar remnants – like neutron stars or…

Last October, astronomers witnessed a fleeting, extraordinarily bright gamma ray burst in the distant universe. Since dubbed the BOAT—the Brightest of All Time—a team of scientists has now reported an unusual structure to the gamma ray burst’s jet.What Is Carbon Capture? With Gizmodo’s Molly Taft | TechmodoGamma ray bursts are some of the universe’s largest fireworks shows. They’re tremendous explosions in the cosmos that emit—you guessed it—gamma rays, the most energetic type of electromagnetic radiation. They can be…

On October 9, 2022, a gamma ray burst brighter than any before seen swept across Earth and space-based detectors. A team scrambled to take follow-up observations at radio wavelengths, and they confirmed that the burst was about 70 times brighter than anything recorded previously.First Full-Color Images From Webb Space TelescopeThe astronomical team believes the 2022 explosion—reported on by Gizmodo at the time—was a one-in-10,000-year event. New research detailing aspects of the burst is published today in The…

Most of the light streaming through the Universe is invisible to human eyes. Beyond the mid-range wavelengths we can see, there's a whole cosmos shining in high- and low-energy radiation.But we humans are clever little animals and have managed to build instruments that can see the light we cannot. One of these is NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, an observatory hanging out in low-Earth orbit, monitoring the sky for gamma rays, the highest-energy light in the Universe.Fermi constantly surveils the entire sky,…

Apple Inc is backing a music startup launched by one of its former executives. The company, called Gamma, is the brainchild of former Apple Music Global Creative Director Larry Jackson and veteran music executive Ike Youssef. It positions itself as an alternative to traditional record labels. "The artists shaping today's culture not only create music, but also video, film, podcasts, fashion, and more," Jackson said in a statement Wednesday. "They shouldn't have to jump through multiple hoops to express themselves. Gamma…