What regarding the universe that the space observation equipment using gamma rays looked into for 365 days? An animation that visualizes this rare sight that cannot be seen with the human eye has been released. Gamma rays, which are high-energy electromagnetic waves, are also an advanced observation method to reveal the origin of neutrinos that make up the universe.
SpaceX, an American private space development company, recently introduced cosmic gamma rays captured by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in low-Earth orbit for a year through its official YouTube channel.
Titled ‘NASA’s Fermi captures dynamic gamma-ray sky in new animation’, the video is very short at 9 seconds. It received a lot of attention because it is a rare video in which gamma rays, which cannot be observed by humans, flicker all over the vast universe.
Gamma ray observation equipment is designed specifically for capturing cosmic gamma rays. In the case of the Fermi Space Telescope, two cameras are mounted on the fuselage, one detecting wide-area gamma rays and the other detecting Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) that disappear in a flash.
This animation of constantly flickering purple light summarizes the results of observations of a total of 1525 celestial bodies for a full year from February 1 of last year by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
An official from SpaceX said, “One frame of the video corresponds to three days, and the size of the purple dot is proportional to the brightness of the gamma rays. The identity of the yellow circle crossing the video is the movement of the sun.”
He added, “The orange haze that lines the center of the video is gamma rays from the Milky Way, which contains the Earth we live in. 90% of the gamma rays recorded in the video are emitted by an astronomical object called ‘Blazer’.”
A ‘blazer’ is a type of quasar that emits extremely bright light using a massive black hole located at the center of a giant elliptical galaxy as an energy source. When material is sucked into a black hole, it emits intense radiation and heat, generating a tremendous amount of light. At this time, some of the material swallowed by the black hole is ejected like a jet along the lines of magnetic force, and the direction toward the earth is called a ‘blazer’.
An official from SpaceX said, “Seeing invisible light is like facing the true face of the universe.” It helps a lot to understand the configuration,” he said.
Reporter Jeong Ian anglee@sputnik.kr
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