NASA's Fermi Spots 'Superflares' in the Crab Nebula

The famous Crab Nebula supernova remnant has erupted in an enormous flare five times more powerful than any previously seen from the object. The outburst was first detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on April 12 and lasted six days.

The nebula, which is the wreckage of an exploded star whose light reached Earth in 1054, is one of the most studied objects in the sky. At the heart of an expanding gas cloud lies what's left of the original star's core, a superdense neutron star that spins 30 times a second. With each rotation, the star swings intense beams of radiation toward Earth, creating the pulsed emission characteristic of spinning neutron stars (also known as pulsars).

Apart from these pulses, astrophysicists regarded the Crab Nebula to be a virtually constant source of high-energy radiation. But in January, scientists associated with several orbiting observatories -- including NASA's Fermi, Swift and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer -- reported long-term brightness changes at X-ray energies.

Scientists think that the flares occur as the intense magnetic field near the pulsar undergoes sudden restructuring. Such changes can accelerate particles like electrons to velocities near the speed of light. As these high-speed electrons interact with the magnetic field, they emit gamma rays in a process known as synchrotron emission.

To account for the observed emission, scientists say that the electrons must have energies 100 times greater than can be achieved in any particle accelerator on Earth. This makes them the highest-energy electrons known to be associated with any cosmic source.

Based on the rise and fall of gamma rays during the April outbursts, scientists estimate that the size of the emitting region must be comparable in size to the solar system. If circular, the region must be smaller than roughly twice Pluto's average distance from the sun.NASA's Fermi Spots 'Superflares' in the Crab Nebula

 Like a July 4 fireworks display a young, glittering collection of stars looks like an aerial burst. The cluster is surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dust - the raw material for new star formation. The nebula, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina, contains a central cluster of huge, hot stars, called NGC 3603.

This environment is not as peaceful as it looks. Ultraviolet radiation and violent stellar winds have blown out an enormous cavity in the gas and dust enveloping the cluster, providing an unobstructed view of the cluster.</br>

Most of the stars in the cluster were born around the same time but differ in size, mass, temperature, and color. The course of a star's life is determined by its mass, so a cluster of a given age will contain stars in various stages of their lives, giving an opportunity for detailed analyses of stellar life cycles. NGC 3603 also contains some of the most massive stars known. These huge stars live fast and die young, burning through their hydrogen fuel quickly and ultimately ending their lives in supernova explosions.</br>

Star clusters like NGC 3603 provide important clues to understanding the origin of massive star formation in the early, distant universe. Astronomers also use massive clusters to study distant starbursts that occur when galaxies collide, igniting a flurry of star formation. The proximity of NGC 3603 makes it an excellent lab for studying such distant and momentous events.</br>

This Hubble Space Telescope image was captured in August 2009 and December 2009 with the Wide Field Camera 3 in both visible and infrared light, which trace the glow of sulfur, hydrogen, and iron.</br>

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. in Washington, D.C. </br>See:Starburst Cluster Shows Celestial Fireworks

Aspera

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A European Network For Astroparticle Physics in Europe

ASPERA is a network of national government agencies responsible for coordinating and funding national research efforts in Astroparticle Physics

• Hunting neutrinos...

• The IceCube experiment

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See Also: LAGUNA large neutrino observatory design moves forward

Crab Nebula

This is a mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans.

The orange filaments are the tattered remains of the star and consist mostly of hydrogen. The rapidly spinning neutron star embedded in the center of the nebula is the dynamo powering the nebula's eerie interior bluish glow. The blue light comes from electrons whirling at nearly the speed of light around magnetic field lines from the neutron star. The neutron star, like a lighthouse, ejects twin beams of radiation that appear to pulse 30 times a second due to the neutron star's rotation. A neutron star is the crushed ultra-dense core of the exploded star.

The Crab Nebula derived its name from its appearance in a drawing made by Irish astronomer Lord Rosse in 1844, using a 36-inch telescope. When viewed by Hubble, as well as by large ground-based telescopes such as the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, the Crab Nebula takes on a more detailed appearance that yields clues into the spectacular demise of a star, 6,500 light-years away.

The newly composed image was assembled from 24 individual Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 exposures taken in October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000. The colors in the image indicate the different elements that were expelled during the explosion. Blue in the filaments in the outer part of the nebula represents neutral oxygen, green is singly-ionized sulfur, and red indicates doubly-ionized oxygen.

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January 6, 2011 - Fermi's Large Area Telescope Sees Surprising Flares in Crab Nebula

Each of the two flares the LAT observed lasted a few days before the Crab Nebula's gamma-ray output returned to more normal levels. According to Funk, the short duration of the flares points to synchrotron radiation, or radiation emitted by electrons accelerating in the magnetic field of the nebula, as the cause. And not just any accelerated electrons: the flares were caused by super-charged electrons of up to 10¹⁵ electron volts, or 10 quadrillion electron volts, approximately 1,000 times more energetic than the protons accelerated by the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, the world's most powerful man-made particle accelerator, and more than 15 orders of magnitude greater than photons of visible light.

"The strength of the gamma-ray flares shows us they were emitted by the highest-energy particles we can associate with any discrete astrophysical object," Funk said. January 6, 2011 - Fermi's Large Area Telescope Sees Surprising Flares in Crab Nebula-Date Issued: January 6, 2011 Contact: Melinda Lee, SLAC Media Manager

Fermi Records Lighthouse Effect

John Keats talked of "unweaving the rainbow", suggesting that Newton destroyed the beauty of nature by analysing light with a prism and splitting it into different colours. Keats was being a prat. Physicists also smile when we see rainbows, but our emotional reaction is doubled by our understanding of the deep physics relating to the prismatic effects of raindrops. Similarly, physicists appreciate sunsets more than anybody else, because we can enjoy the myriad colours and at the same time grasp the nuclear physics that created the energy that created the photons that travelled for millions of years to the surface of the Sun, which then travelled eight minutes through space to Earth, which were then scattered by the atmosphere to create the colourful sunset. Understanding physics only enhances the beauty of nature.See:'Keats claimed physics destroyed beauty. Keats was being a prat'

In this illustration, one photon (purple) carries a million times the energy of another (yellow). Some theorists predict travel delays for higher-energy photons, which interact more strongly with the proposed frothy nature of space-time. Yet Fermi data on two photons from a gamma-ray burst fail to show this effect, eliminating some approaches to a new theory of gravity. The animation link below shows the delay scientists had expected to observe. Credit: NASA/Sonoma State University/Aurore Simonnet

See: Fermi Telescope Caps First Year With Glimpse of Space-Time

"This measurement eliminates any approach to a new theory of gravity that predicts a strong energy dependent change in the speed of light," Michelson said. "To one part in 100 million billion, these two photons travelled at the same speed. Einstein still rules."

What I want people to know now is that a question arises about "theoretical conclusions drawn" about joining, "Electromagnetism and Gravity." This basically what their saying?

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We see a pulsar, then, when one of its beams of radiation crosses our line-of-sight. In this way, a pulsar is like a lighthouse. The light from a lighthouse appears to be "pulsing" because it only crosses our line-of-sight once each time it spins. Similarly, a pulsar "pulses" because we see bright flashes every time the star spins. See: Pulsars

Link to tutorial site has been taken down, and belongs to Barb of  http://www.airynothing.com

For some it is not a hard thing to remember when the Sun, or a light has blinded one to seeing what is in front of you, it aligns to the realization, that if one shifts to the right or left, they can come out of the bright directional gaze of emissions from that other time.

M87's Energetic Jet., HST image. The blue light from the jet emerging from the bright AGN core, towards the lower right, is due to synchrotron radiation.

See Also: Light House Keeper as well as Label Lighthouse at bottom of Post entry.

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Simple Jet Model. A simple model for a jet is a relativistic sphere emitting synchrotron radiation. This simple model hides the complexity of a real jet but can still be used to illustrate the principles of relativistic beaming.

Electrons inside the blob(Crab Nebula) travel at speeds just a tiny fraction below the speed of light and are whipped around by the magnetic field. Each change in direction by an electron is accompanied by the release of energy in the form of a photon. With enough electrons and a powerful enough magnetic field the relativistic sphere can emit a huge number of photons, ranging from those at relatively weak radio frequencies to powerful X-ray photons.-(In brackets added by me)See: Relativistic beaming

So the spectrum at this end reveals Gamma ray perspective that when considered under this watchful eye, reveals views of our Sun and views of the Cosmos of very different ranges used in that spectrum, still, shows the Sun.

It is not so difficult to realize then how much energy is directed that one could say that what we had seen in the light effect can help spotters on ships realize the coastlines during those frightful storms at sea.

(click on image for larger viewing)

The bluish glow from the central region of the nebula is due to synchrotron radiation.

Synchrotron radiation is electromagnetic radiation, similar to cyclotron radiation, but generated by the acceleration of ultrarelativistic (i.e., moving near the speed of light) charged particles through magnetic fields. This may be achieved artificially in synchrotronsstorage rings, or naturally by fast electrons moving through magnetic fields in space. The radiation produced may range over the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio wavesinfrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays. It is distinguished by its characteristic polarization and spectrum.

Spherical Cows and their X-ray Sources

As a layman I find this of particular importance when we send our vision out amongst the stars, all the while looking at the substance of these events "within the larger context of the universe." While each particular event is revealed through Chandra's catalogued linked below it helps me to see them within that universe as well as think of them in terms of "this singular event" as shown in the Crab Nebula.

Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/F.Seward et al

This image gives the first clear view of the faint boundary of the Crab Nebula's X-ray-emitting pulsar wind nebula. The nebula is powered by a rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron star, or pulsar (white dot near the center). The combination of rapid rotating and strong magnetic field generates an intense electromagnetic field that creates jets of matter and anti-matter moving away from the north and south poles of the pulsar, and an intense wind flowing out in the equatorial direction.

The inner X-ray ring is thought to be a shock wave that marks the boundary between the surrounding nebula and the flow of matter and antimatter particles from the pulsar. Energetic electrons and positrons (antielectrons) move outward from this ring to brighten the outer ring and produce an extended X-ray glow.

The fingers, loops, and bays in the image all indicate that the magnetic field of the nebula and filaments of cooler matter are controlling the motion of the electrons and positrons. The particles can move rapidly along the magnetic field and travel several light years before radiating away their energy. In contrast, they move much more slowly perpendicular to the magnetic field, and travel only a short distance before losing their energy.

This effect can explain the long, thin, fingers and loops, as well as the sharp boundaries of the bays. The conspicuous dark bays on the lower right and left are likely due to the effects of a toroidal magnetic field that is a relic of the progenitor star.

See:Crab Nebula: Fingers, Loops and Bays in The Crab Nebula

Now of course, when I read on how the astronomers approximate, it was as if I was watching it from a view, and all of this is on stage. What was in my thinking before this is what I had done naturally anyway, since such regions of the universe has these places as part of the larger context. How they contribute to the universe at large, just seem to be part of the geometrical evolution of the event for me and was part of the effort to explain in this geometrical unfolding.


Dr. Kip Thorne, Caltech 01-Relativity-The First 20th Century Revolution

Thusly, the impetus for information of these events were part of the motivation factors that are driven. It left to us to see "the nature of these places," in our universe which allowed us a portrayal of the elements in a dissipative and degenerative energy expenditure, as fore tellings of a further geometrical inclination.

The idea here then is that gravity does not emerge from the "substance of the neutrinos," but happens much earlier. It happens with the "geometrical inclination within the confines of the universe." If, the total universe is an expression of the same geometrical inclination as an event, then, "every event that happens within universe," either contributes to the inflationary aspect, or, it does not. If the numbers of events "exceed the universe" then those events contribute to a "speeding up" that can occur?

It is "the geometrical action itself" that presents the gravity waves to our location here on earth. It is not to be thought of as earth as any central sun located but an object placed or event, that sits in the universe, and can measure the gravitational waves as they pass these locations.

Other Images of X-ray sources that allow us to ponder the nature of expression "in the approximate" using the Spherical Cow in relation.

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Chandra Images by Category: Supernovas & Supernova Remnants

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See also:

Spherical Cows

Glast now Known as "Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope"

Production of Gravitational Waves

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Now, here is a SuperNova for Real

The Crab Nebula from VLT Credit: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT, ESO



Now the "ultimate proof" is to hold in our hands the matters defined by objects. This is the culmination of all dimensional perspectives, being "condensed to the moment" we hold the stardust samples in our hands. In that case, it may be of a meteorite/comet in passing?

Now we are going back to our computers for a moment here.

Now we know what can be done in terms of computer programming, and what simulations of events can do for us, but what happens, when we look out into space and watch events unfold as they do in our models?

Interaction with matter

In passing through matter, gamma radiation ionizes via three main processes: the photoelectric effect, Compton scattering, and pair production.

Photoelectric Effect: This describes the case in which a gamma photon interacts with and transfers its energy to an atomic electron, ejecting that electron from the atom. The kinetic energy of the resulting photoelectron is equal to the energy of the incident gamma photon minus the binding energy of the electron. The photoelectric effect is the dominant energy transfer mechanism for x-ray and gamma ray photons with energies below 50 keV (thousand electron volts), but it is much less important at higher energies.
Compton Scattering: This is an interaction in which an incident gamma photon loses enough energy to an atomic electron to cause its ejection, with the remainder of the original photon's energy being emitted as a new, lower energy gamma photon with an emission direction different from that of the incident gamma photon. The probability of Compton scatter decreases with increasing photon energy. Compton scattering is thought to be the principal absorption mechanism for gamma rays in the intermediate energy range 100 keV to 10 MeV (megaelectronvolts), an energy spectrum which includes most gamma radiation present in a nuclear explosion. Compton scattering is relatively independent of the atomic number of the absorbing material.
Pair Production: By interaction via the Coulomb force, in the vicinity of the nucleus, the energy of the incident photon is spontaneously converted into the mass of an electron-positron pair. A positron is the anti-matter equivalent of an electron; it has the same mass as an electron, but it has a positive charge equal in strength to the negative charge of an electron. Energy in excess of the equivalent rest mass of the two particles (1.02 MeV) appears as the kinetic energy of the pair and the recoil nucleus. The positron has a very short lifetime (about 10-8 seconds). At the end of its range, it combines with a free electron. The entire mass of these two particles is then converted into two gamma photons of 0.51 MeV energy each.

I wanted to include this information about Gamma Rays first so you understand what happens in space, as we get this information. I want to show you that there is faster ways that we recognize these events, and this includes, recognition of what the spacetime fabric tells us from one place in the universe, to another.

Does it look the same? Check out, "Going SuperNova 3Dgif by Quasar9"

Now, take a look at this below.

Four hundred years ago, sky watchers, including the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler, were startled by the sudden appearance of a "new star" in the western sky, rivaling the brilliance of the nearby planets. Now, astronomers using NASA's three Great Observatories are unraveling the mysteries of the expanding remains of Kepler's supernova, the last such object seen to explode in our Milky Way galaxy

What can we learn about our modelling capabilties, and what can we learn about the events in space that need to be further "mapped?" How shall we do this?

Gamma ray indicators prepared us for something that was happening. Now with this "advance notice" we look back, and watch it unfold?

A new image taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope provides a detailed look at the tattered remains of a supernova explosion known as Cassiopeia A (Cas A). It is the youngest known remnant from a supernova explosion in the Milky Way. The new Hubble image shows the complex and intricate structure of the star's shattered fragments. The image is a composite made from 18 separate images taken in December 2004 using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).

If advance indication are possible besides gamma ray detection, then what form would this take? Could we map the events as we learn of what happen in LIGO or LIsa operations, and how the "speed of light" is effected in a vacuum?

Now this comes to the second part, and question of indications of information released to the "bulk perspective" as the event unfolds as this SuperNova is.

Bulk:

Note that in the type IIA and type IIB string theories closed strings are allowed to move everywhere throughout the ten-dimensional space-time (called the bulk), while open strings have their ends attached to D-branes, which are membranes of lower dimensionality (their dimension is odd - 1,3,5,7 or 9 - in type IIA and even - 0,2,4,6 or 8 - in type IIB, including the time direction).

Now advancement in model assumption pushes perspective where it did not exist before.

You had to understand the nature of "GR" in pushing perspective, in the way this post is unfolding. Gamma ray indicators, are events that are "tied to the brane" and in this sense, information is held to the brane. The "fermion principle" and identifcation of Type IIA and IIB is necessary, as part of the move to M theory?

Thus when we look at Gamma rays they are not "separate from the event" while the bulk perspective, allows geoemtrics to invade the "new world" beyond the confines of non-euclidean geometries.

As I pointed out, the succession of Maxwell and all the eqautions (let there be light) are still dveloped from the center outwards, and in this perspective gravitational waves wrap the event. Thus the "outer most covering" is a much higher vision and dynamical nature, then what we assume as "ripples in space."

Bulk perspectve is a necessary revision/addition to how we think and include gravitational waves, by incorporating the "gravitonic perception" as a force carrier and extension of the Standard model.

While it has been thought by me to include the "Tachyon question", as a faster then light entity, the thought is still of some puzzlement that this information precedes the gamma ray detection, and hence, serves to elucidate the understanding of our perceptions of the early events as they unfold, as a more "sounding" reason to how we look at these early events?

If those whose views have been entertaining spacetravel, as I have exemplified in previous post, then it was of some importance that model enhancement would serve to help the future of spacetravel in all it's outcomes, as we now engaged, as ISCAP is engaging.

See:

Einstein@Home

LIGO: