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Highest Energy Photons Ever Detected As Emanating From Milky Way Equator
Physicists at nearly a dozen research institutions, including New York University, have discovered evidence for very high energy gamma rays emitting from the Milky Way, marking the highest energies ever detected from the galactic equator. Their findings, published in the Dec. 16 issue of the Physical Review of Letters, were obtained using the Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory, a new detector located near Los Alamos, N.M., that allows monitoring of the northern sky on a 24-hour, 7-day-per-week basis. Gamma rays are considered by scientists to be the best probe of cosmic rays outside the solar neighborhood. The research team, which includes nearly 40 physicists, reported that Milagro, positioned at an altitude of 8600 feet in the Jemez Mountains, detected a signal along the galactic equator region and interpreted it as arising from gamma rays with a median energy of 3.5 trillion electron-volts, or 3500 times the mass-energy of a proton. Previous satellite experiments have seen gamma-ray emissions along the galactic equator reaching up to energies of only 30 billion electron-volts. These emissions are understood to be produced by interactions of cosmic-ray particles with the abundant interstellar medium near the galactic equator. Previously, some researchers had speculated that additional mechanisms were needed to explain the large number of particles observed at high energies. However, the measurements by Milagro can be understood by assuming a cosmic ray energy spectrum near the galactic center similar to that in the solar system and the standard properties of particle interactions. The results presented in the Physical Review of Letters paper were gathered over a three-year period, beginning in July 2000. The NYU collaborators on this work included Roman Fleysher, whose Ph.D. thesis formed the basis of much of this work, his advisor, Professor Peter Nemethy, Roman's brother, Lazar, and NYU Physics Professor Allen Mincer. Roman's thesis work, which was based on 14 months of data, was later extended to the present analysis on three years of data. The Fleysher brothers are currently post-doctoral fellows with the MRI spectroscopy group lead by Professor Oded Gonen at the Department of Radiology, NYU School of Medicine. Related Links Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory New York University SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
Spitzer Exposes Hundreds Of New Star Clusters In Dust-Drenched Plane Of Milky Way
Pasadena CA (SPX) Dec 14, 2005Astronomers have at last found inner light! But they didn't find it through the typical Earthly methods of meditation, exercise and therapy. Instead, the light was discovered inside our Milky Way galaxy after hours of deep self-reflection with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
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