GLAST renamed Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

by William Atkins

Thursday, 28 August 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! NASA announced in February 2008 that it was holding a contest to re-name its Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST. The new name—Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope—was announced by NASA in August 2008 to honor Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi (1901-1954). The contest was detailed in the iTWire article “You can re-name the GLAST space telescope for NASA.” At that time, NASA intended for the contest and the telescope’s new name to "capture the excitement of GLAST's mission and call attention to gamma-ray and high-energy astronomy." The re-naming of GLAST in honor of Dr. Fermi was announced on Tuesday, August 26, 2008, at a NASA press conference. Dr. Enrico Fermi contributed to the development of the first nuclear reactor, along with important work in quantum theory (such as the theory of beta decay), nuclear and particle physics (such as controlled nuclear chain reactions), and statistical mechanics (such as Fermi-Dirac statistics). Heralded as one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century, Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 for his work on induced radioactivity (new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation). In addition, the synthetic element Fermium was named after him. In the NASA media release, “NASA renames observatory for Fermi, reveals entire gamma-ray sky,” Paul Hertz, chief scientist for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, states, "Enrico Fermi was the first person to suggest how cosmic particles could be accelerated to high speeds. His theory provides the foundation for understanding the new phenomena his namesake telescope will discover." Today, the Fermi telescope explores the universe in the area of high-energy gamma rays. The gamma-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum (all the different types of radiation [light]) has been an often-ignored part of the exploration of the universe. However, at these energies the Fermi is readily detecting photons (elementary particles that carry electromagnetic radiation) with energies ranging from 20 to 300 tera electron volts (where one tera electron volt (TEV) is equal to one trillion [one thousand billion] electron volts). NASA makes the analogy that 300 billion electron volts corresponds to “energies more than 5 million times greater than dental X-rays.” Page two continues the story. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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