Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Gamma-ray astronomy

New sights in the high-energy sky

Nature volume 387, pages 757–759 (1997)Cite this article

Gamma-ray astrophysics deals with the world of extremes and fundamentals, from the creation of the elements to the disappearance of matter into black holes. γ-rays are the most energetic electromagnetic radiation, and reveal the most violent phenomena. Six years after the launch of NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, a 15-ton spacecraft containing the most advanced γ-ray instruments, astrophysicists met*to assess its achievements so far. In some respects, the observations have confirmed theory and expectations, but the γ-ray sky appears to be even richer than anticipated. An unexpected ‘fountain’ of antimatter far above the Milky Way has been reported, many active galactic nuclei and more than a hundred unidentifiable point sources have been detected, and increasing evidence for γ-ray lines has been seen.

The Compton Observatory carries four instruments, each with its own specific goals and accomplishments. BATSE (Burst and Transient Source Experiment) made us realize that γ-ray bursts are among the most puzzling phenomena in astrophysics. The Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) and the Compton Telescope (COMPTEL) have mapped for the first time the entire γ-ray sky, from ~10 GeV (giga-electron volts) down to the MeV (mega-electron volts) regime, where nuclear decay and nuclear interactions produce γ-ray lines. An intense glow from the Milky Way dominates this whole spectral region, which can largely be attributed to diffuse emission from cosmic rays hitting gas nuclei and photons in interstellar space. This reveals the distribution of cosmic-ray particles throughout the Galaxy, which is vital information for understanding their origin.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The Milky Way in the light of the 1.

U. OBERLACK

Figure 2: The distribution of positrons near the centre of our Galaxy, obtained with OSSE.

D. D. Dixon & W. R. Purcell

Acknowledgements

We thank our colleagues for discussion and for communicating unpublished results; P. Freemont, N. Jones and A. Parker for their suggestions and for critically reading the manuscript; P. Chambon for pBL1, pASV3 and the anti-ER monoclonal antibody; B. Katzenellenbogen for 2EREppS2-CAT; N. Jones for the yeast strain; K. Hobbs for oligonucleotides; N. O'Reilly for peptides; W. Bessant for photography; and G. Clark for automated sequencing. D.M.H. and E.K. were supported by grants from the European Community TMR program and the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO), respectively.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SRON Space Research Organization of the Netherlands, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Hans Bloemen

Authors
  1. Hans Bloemen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bloemen, H. New sights in the high-energy sky. Nature 387, 757–759 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/42811

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/42811

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing