Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

2019 News

Dec 19, 2019

NASA's Fermi Mission Links Nearby Pulsar's Gamma-ray 'Halo' to Antimatter Puzzle

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered a faint but sprawling glow of high-energy light around a nearby pulsar. If visible to the human eye, this gamma-ray "halo" would appear about 40 times bigger in the sky than a full Moon. This structure may provide the solution to a long-standing mystery about the amount of antimatter in our neighborhood.
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Nov 21, 2019

Missing data in LAT data server

On November 15, 2019 the FSSC became aware that approximately 17 days of photon data had been missing from the LAT data server for almost a year. The missing data covered a continuous span from November 1, 2018 (MET 562723575) to November 17, 2018 (MET 564168732). The data was accidentally deleted during the switchover to the P8R3 data on November 26, 2018. Only photon data retrieved from the FSSC's LAT data server was affected. The weekly photon all-sky files and the extended and spacecraft data were not affected. The missing data has now been restored to the LAT data server. The issue seems to have been a one-off problem due to the switchover, but the FSSC has taken steps to better detect any such problems in the future.

Nov 20, 2019

NASA's Fermi, Swift Missions Enable a New Era in Gamma-ray Science

A pair of distant explosions discovered by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have produced the highest-energy light yet seen from these events, called gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The record-setting detections, made by two different ground-based observatories, provide new insights into the mechanisms driving gamma-ray bursts.
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Sep 20, 2019

9th International Fermi Symposium

Please join us in Johannesburg, South Africa March 29-April 3 for the next Fermi Symposium. Abstracts are due November 1st. More information can be found on the Symposium Webpage.

Aug 15, 2019

Moon Glows Brighter Than Sun in Images From NASA's Fermi

If our eyes could see gamma rays, the Moon would appear brighter than the Sun! That's how NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has seen our neighbor in space for the past decade. These gamma-ray observations are a reminder that astronauts on the Moon will require protection from the same cosmic rays that produce this high-energy gamma radiation.
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Aug 5, 2019

Fermi Returns to Normal Operations

Friday night 8/2/19: The Fermi flight operations has returned the observatory to normal sky-survey mode and science operations have been resumed. The situation will continue to be carefully monitored.

Aug 2, 2019

Fermi Spacecraft Anomaly

At 14:33:54 UTC on August 1, Fermi went into Sun point mode following an anomaly. The observatory is safe and the instruments are powered on but are not taking any science data at this time. The investigation into the cause of the anomaly is ongoing.

Aug 1, 2019

NASA Scientist to Discuss "Cosmic Explosions and Cosmic Accelerators" at Library of Congress Lecture

The public is invited to a free lecture called 'Cosmic Explosions and Cosmic Accelerators: Gamma-rays and Multi-messenger Astronomy,' with Dr. Regina Caputo, NASA research scientist. The talk will occur in the Pickford Theater, third floor, Madison Building, 101 Independence Avenue SE, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., on Thursday, August 8 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EDT.
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Jul 3, 2019

Release of the Second Fermi LAT GRB Catalog

The second catalog of LAT-detected gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is now available in a searchable table the HEASARC's Browse interface. The catalog contains 186 GRBs covering the first 10 years of operations, from 2008 August 4 to 2018 August 4.

Jun 13, 2019

NASA's Fermi Mission Reveals its Highest-energy Gamma-ray Bursts

For 10 years, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has scanned the sky for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the universe's most luminous explosions. A new catalog of the highest-energy blasts provides scientists with fresh insights into how they work.
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Mar 19, 2019

NASA's Fermi Satellite Clocks 'Cannonball' Pulsar Speeding Through Space

Astronomers found a pulsar hurtling through space at nearly 2.5 million miles an hour - so fast it could travel the distance between Earth and the Moon in just 6 minutes. The discovery was made using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA).
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Mar 11, 2019

Release of the Interstellar Emission Model for the 4FGL Catalog Analysis

As a supplement to the preliminary release of the fourth catalog of Fermi-LAT sources (4FGL), the updated model of interstellar gamma-ray emission that was used for the catalog analysis is also being made available. This new model, gll_iem_v07.fits, is provided as a FITS cube together with a detailed description of the construction of the model, including a set of caveats describing aspects of the model that will be updated in a future release. Accompanying the interstellar emission model are models for the isotropic emission for different LAT response functions and event types. As for the 4FGL catalog, the interstellar emission model and isotropic spectra were developed using Pass 8 P8R3 event selections. You can find more information about the new files on the LAT background models page.

Mar 6, 2019

Ninth International Fermi Symposium

The Ninth International Fermi Symposium will be held at the Misty Hills Conference Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa from March 29 to April 3, 2020. More details will be posted on the symposium website as they become available.

Feb 25, 2019

Preliminary Release of Fourth Catalog of Fermi-LAT Sources

The (4FGL) catalog is based on the first eight years of LAT science data and is the largest and deepest ever in this energy range. It contains 5098 sources of gamma-rays from 50 MeV to 1 TeV. The catalog is provided as a FITS table, and is accompanied by important caveats as well as a draft of the paper describing the details of the catalog preparation. The source list is complete but some additional information will be added in a future, final release, including light curves and a complete set of analysis flags. The final release may also include more or revised information about multiwavelength associations of some sources. This release is being made at this time in support of proposal preparation for the Cycle 12 of the Fermi Guest Investigator program.

Jan 31, 2019

Fermi Cycle-12 Proposal Deadline Update

The proposal deadline for Fermi Cycle-12 stage-1 submissions is now Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 16:30 EST. The previous deadline has been revised as a result of the recent government shutdown. Additional information is available on the Proposals Page of this website and on NSPIRES in the ROSES NRA, Appendix D.6. Cycle-12 is expected to start on time in August 2019.