Fermi telescope produces new gamma-ray map

STANFORD, Calif., March 11 (UPI) -- New data from the U.S. space agency's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope are giving scientists an unprecedented look at the high-energy cosmos.

A new map combining nearly three months of data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration telescope shows the universe ablaze with gamma rays from sources both within the solar system and from galaxies billions of light-years from Earth.

"Fermi has given us a deeper and better-resolved view of the gamma-ray sky than any previous space mission," said Peter Michelson of Stanford University, the lead scientist for the spacecraft's Large Area Telescope. "We're watching flares from supermassive black holes in distant galaxies and seeing pulsars, high-mass binary systems and even a globular cluster in our own."

The LAT scans the sky every three hours while in survey mode, which involves most of the telescope's observing time during its first year of operation, NASA said. The scans allow scientists to monitor rapidly changing sources.

A paper describing the 205 brightest sources the Fermi telescope has recorded has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Supplement for publication.

NASA said the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope involves contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Sweden.