Word: gamma
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COVER Photograph by James Schnepf-Gamma Liaison...
COVER Photograph for TIME by Anis Hamdani -- Gamma Liaison...
Astronomers will get a chance to answer some of these questions -- and more -- over the next two to eight years as a result of last week's NASA launch of the Gamma Ray Observatory on board the space shuttle Atlantis. The 17.5-ton GRO will circle the earth at a height of 450 km (280 miles), mapping the heavens as it peers to the very edges of the universe. "Gamma-ray scientists are starved for information," says Richard Lingenfelter, an astronomer at the University of California at San Diego. Data gathered on such violent but poetic-sounding celestial bodies...
...Gamma rays are the most powerful type of radiation, thought to have been created during the explosion that launched the universe and its subsequent expansion. As distant heavenly bodies continue to collapse and explode, the only signals earth may receive of this activity are in the form of gamma rays. For example, gamma-ray bursters have been measured releasing more energy in a matter of seconds than the sun does in thousands of years. Since they carry no electric charge, gamma rays can plow through space unchanged, giving scientists a clear record of cosmic events. The atmosphere shields the earth...
...satellite will rely on four sophisticated instruments, three of which are the size of small automobiles, to record the full range of gamma-ray activity. The devices will also conduct tests of the skies throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, using X rays, visible light and infrared light. These sensitive instruments were developed by a team of scientists from Germany, the Netherlands, the U.S. and the European Space Agency. The four monitors will all use liquid and solid crystals to record the origin of gamma- ) ray sources. As the rays smash into the crystals, they produce flashes of light called scintillations. Those...