Fermi Science Playoffs: Round 1 Results Are In!

You've been waiting, so now it's time to annouce the result of the first round of voting in Fermi's Science Playoffs! Over the last two weeks, thousands of friends of Fermi like you have pored over 16 of the most exciting discoveries made by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope over the last 10 years and voted for your favorites. As a reminder, here's the full suite of images in the "round of 16."

Your votes have selected the results that move up to the "round of 8". These winning discoveries range from antimatter in thunderstorms to cosmic explosions to clues about dark matter.

The voting produced some surprises compared to the expectations of the "subject matter experts." More than seventy Fermi scientists contributed to the seeding for these Fermi Playoffs. The biggest upset was our third seed (Novae are Gamma-ray Sources), which was decisively swamped by the fourteenth seed (Starquakes in Magnetar Storm). Our fifth seed (Cosmic Rays from Supernova Remnant) was upset by the twelfth seed (New Clues to Dark Matter) and our eleventh seed (Dark Pulsar in Supernova Remnant) edged out the sixth seed (Superflares in Crab Nebula) in a closely fought contest.

Which results win in the next round is up to you! Be sure to vote in the upcoming rounds until you select our final winner. Follow along to see how your favorites fare. The round of 8 begins today, and voting will close on July 5th at 10am EST.

Vote in Round 2!