NASA gamma-ray space telescope gets upgrade
NOV 07, 2012
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.026509
Nature : After four years of successful operation, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope is getting a much-needed software upgrade. Just last week it was reported that Fermi had made the most accurate measurement to date of all the starlight in the universe. Yet because of software problems and insufficient memory in one of its detectors, the space telescope has been unable to detect photons with energies exceeding 10 GeV. With the upgrade, not only will the telescope be better able to gather data from the highest-energy gamma rays, but researchers may be able to reanalyze data from gamma-ray bursts already detected by Fermi since it began operating in 2008. Fermi‘s newfound capacity could help researchers better understand such enigmatic phenomena as dark matter.
© 2012 American Institute of Physics
