Contact: Andy Freeberg
afreeberg@slac.stanford.edu
650-926-4359
DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Supernovas W44 & IC 443 in Gamma Rays

Caption: In order to understand the origin and acceleration of cosmic ray protons, researchers used data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and targeted W44 and IC 443, two supernova remnants thousands of light years away. Both turned out to be strong sources of gamma rays, but not at energies below what neutral pion decay would produce -- the observational proof scientists had been looking for.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

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