The Violent Universe Observed with the Fermi Telescope

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was launched into space in June 2008. The main instrument is the Large Area Telescope (LAT). Dr. Amy Furniss will present the Fermi-LAT instrument and highlight its most interesting results after seven years of operation.

Gamma-ray observations open a new window into the universe, allowing us the study of exotic and violent processes. These photons are also an important tool in the search for the dark matter that pervades the universe. One expected signal is gamma rays from annihilations of massive dark matter particles, and the LAT has made by far the most sensitive searches for this process. The high-energy sky seen by the Fermi-LAT is quite dynamic, including explosions of massive stars and their remnants and supermassive black holes in the centers of distant galaxies. The Fermi-LAT also enabled the identification of many cosmic particle accelerators, including supernova remnants and active galactic nuclei, which are far more powerful than the largest particle accelerator on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.

Speaker: Dr. Amy Furniss