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If you like to look at the night sky, you may know the Big Dipper or the Orion Belt. However, what you will not see is the Millennium Falcon or the Ironman. Well, think again!
NASA has used some characters from modern myths such as The Hulk and Godzilla to name its new set of 21 gamma-ray constellations built to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Fermi Gamma space telescope.
© NASA
Even more modern characters have been added, such as the Little Prince, the TARDIS that distorts the time of "Doctor Who" and the U.S.S. Enterprise of "Star Trek: the original series".
"The development of these unofficial constellations was a fun way to celebrate a decade of Fermi achievements," said Julie McEnery, chief scientist of the Fermi project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in the United States. The constellation is unofficial because it has only 88 constellations, according to the International Astronomical Union.
© NASA
NASA paid tribute to the early days of the Hulk comic, when Dr. Bruce Banner's gamma-ray experiments failed terribly and compared the resemblance of Godzilla's "thermal ray" to the gamma-jets associated with black holes and stars. with neutrons.
NASA presents a complete list of 21 new constellations, accompanied by images illustrating their compatibility with the characters for which they were named.
Since its installation 10 years ago, Fermi scanned the sky every day, measuring and mapping the gamma ray sources, which is the light at the highest energy levels in the universe. It allows scientists to answer persistent questions on a wide range of topics, including supermassive black hole systems, pulsars, the origin of cosmic rays, and the search for new physics signals.
© NASA
"For the first time, the number of known gamma ray sources was comparable to the number of bright stars. So we thought that a new set of constellations was a great way to illustrate this point, "Ferrara said in a statement to PTI.
The gamma ray burst monitor (GBM) detects sudden surges of gamma rays produced by gamma-ray bursts and solar flares. After five years of operations, on August 11, 2013, Fermi entered an extended phase of its mission, a deeper study of the high-energy cosmos.
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Photo: © Reuters (Main image)
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