Astro-Image of the Day2: first light for the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope

[mckitterick]

After too long not posting my Astro-Image of the Day, I hereby share a second one! The powers of teh intarwebs, they intoxicate me! Bwahahahaha!

Ahem. So here's the first image taken by NASA's newest orbital telescope, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (formerly known as the artist... er, as "GLAST." Yeah, the new name is cooler.). This powerhouse scans the entire sky every three hours while also performing detailed observations of the most-distant portions of the universe. Coool (er, hot).

Today's image shows the entire sky. The Milky Way Galaxy glows bright at the center, the Vela Pulsar, and the blazar (an extremely active galaxy) 3C454.3, billions of light-years away. This new FMGRST (er, maybe GLAST was more acronym-friendly) map is a composite of the instrument's first 95 hours of observations:

Click the image to see the story.

Oooh, this Wiki image of the Vela Pulsar is too cool not to share:

Click the image for an even-bigger shot.

Check out this awesome all-sky version of the new image (very large).

Astronomy is awesome these days.

Best,
Chris

Comments

[bodandra.livejournal.com]

What amazing things can be seen!

Thank you, Chris.

[charmed-art.livejournal.com]

Fascinatin'!! The Vela is particularly interesting.

[justaqt.livejournal.com]

If you had the chance to go up into space would you?

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

In a freakin' second, yes! One of my lifetime dreams is to explore space. Just going upstairs for a little bit is something I hope to do some day soon, when the price is a bit more reasonable. Or, y'know, get hired to do stuff in space.

wow

[siro-gravity.livejournal.com]

i clicked on everything here. that super-big image is really eye-popping!

the vela pulsar is so ODD looking. it find it disconcerting in a certain way. the counter-jet looks so umbilical to me. i thought it was interesting that something that looks so "birthish" is really a corpse of sorts.
anyhow.
i always enjoy the astro-images.
and the weather porn.
:)