Monday, May 14, 2012

APOD 4.7

Fermi Epicycles: The Vela Pulsar's Path (May 4, 2012)
Taken with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which orbits the Earth every 95 minutes and precess every 54 days, this image is a compilation of images from August 2008 to August 2010.  The telescope traces the patterns of the path taken by gamma-ray sources.  This particular one happens to be the Vela Pulsar.  The Vela Pulsar was born from the death of a massive star in our galaxy, and is a neutron star that spins 11 times a second.  It is the brightest persistent source in the gamma-ray spectrum in the sky. 

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