Researchers in Washington state at Washington University in St. Louis
are exploring the mysterious, violent activity that results when gamma-ray
bursts are emitted by massive black holes at the center of "active galaxies":
Like
meteor showers, each TeV [terra-electron volt] photon leaves a faint blue streak
in the atmosphere that points back to its source. Over the last decade, they
also have discovered six occurrences of energetic gamma-ray flares from peculiar
galaxies known as Active galaxies or Blazars."We are learning about the physical conditions inside what are known as relativistic jets, which produce TeV gamma rays, " said Buckley. "The jets are composed of matter and radiation that move very close to the speed of light, scattering ambient light up to extremely high (TeV) energies.
image: Color composite image of a fading supernova transient of a gamma-ray
burst, as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on five occasions after the burst.
The supernova transient and its host galaxy are labeled. Image Credit: Shri Kulkarni,
Joshua Bloom, Paul Price, and the Caltech-NRAO GRB Collaboration. Link
Discuss (thanks
for the correction, Gerry!)
