with GLAST - The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope Lynn Cominsky

1. Exploring the Extreme Universe with GLAST - The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope Lynn Cominsky GLAST Education and Public Outreach Lead lynnc@universe.sonoma.edu http://www.nasa.gov/glast

2. What first turned David Banner into the Hulk? Gamma Rays! Because gamma rays are powerful

3. The Electromagnetic Spectrum The Many Forms of Light Each type of light carries different information. Gamma rays, the highest-energy type of light, tell us about the most energetic processes in the Universe.

4. Why study gamma rays? • Universe as seen by eye is peaceful

5. But what if you had gamma-ray vision?

6. The Gamma-ray Sky in False Color – fromEGRET/ComptonGamma Ray Observatory Pulsars – rapidly spinning neutron stars with enormous magnetic and electric fields The Unknown – over half the sources seen by EGRET remain mysterious Blazars – supermassive black holes with huge jets of particles and radiation pointed right at Earth. Milky Way – Gamma rays from powerful cosmic ray particles smashing into the tenuous gas between the stars.  Gamma-ray bursts – extreme exploding stars or merging black holes or neutron stars.

7. Exploding Stars • At the end of a star’s life, if it is large enough, it will end with a bang (and not a whimper!) HST/WFPC2 Credit: Dana Berry SN1987A - HST

8. Supernova Remnants • Radioactive decay of chemical elements created by the supernova explosion Cas A - Chandra CGRO/g-ray Chandra/X-ray

9. Pulsars • Stellar corpses - size of a city, mass of the Sun, spinning up to 1000 times per second

10. Gamma-ray Bursts • Discovered in 1967 while looking for nuclear test explosions

11. Gamma-ray Bursts • Signal the birth of a black hole? • Or the death of life on Earth?

12. Monstrous black holes • At the heart of every galaxy lies a black hole, millions to billions times the mass of our Sun HST/NGC 4261

13. Blazing Galaxies • Gravity is so strong inside its “event horizon” that not even light can escape Credit: Genzel et al. Stars orbiting the Black Hole in the center of the Milky Way Credit: Dana Berry

14. Jet Mysteries • So, how do black holes emit jets of particles and light? • And, how do the particles in the jets accelerate to near light speed? HST/ M87

15. Gamma-ray Jets • Jets flare dramatically in gamma rays • Galaxies that point their jets at us are called “blazars” Credit: Aurore Simonnet

16. Dark Matter • Dark Matter makes up over 90% of the matter in the Universe • You can’t see it, but you can feel it! HST/CL0024+1654

17. Shining light on dark matter • Dark Matter can be traced by studying X-rays from hot gas in clusters of galaxies ROSAT X-ray over visible light image

18. WIMPs • Dark matter may be Weakly Interacting Massive Particles • Annihilating WIMPs may produce gamma rays A calculation of WIMPs around our galaxy

19. The Gamma-ray Sky – An Overview We know some of the “what,” “when,” and “where” – the Universe is populated with powerful, exotic objects and processes that produce gamma rays. Many are variable, and some of these are at cosmological distances. We have only scratched the surface of “how” and “why” for these gamma-ray phenomena. We have much to learn about how they work and affect the Universe. This is where GLAST comes in.

20. How to study Gamma rays? • Absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere • Use rockets, balloons or satellites • Can’t image or focus gamma rays • Special detectors: CCDs, crystals, silicon-strips Balloon experiment

21. Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope

22. GLAST Mission • First space-based collaboration between astrophysics and particle physics communities • Launched 6/11/2008 • Expected duration 5-10 years • Over 3000 gamma-ray sources will be seen

23. GLAST instruments Large Area Telescope GLAST Burst Monitor

24.  Anticoincidence Detector (background rejection) Conversion Foil Particle Tracking Detectors e– e+ • Calorimeter • (energy measurement) How does a gamma-ray telescope work? • The key is “high-energy” • A gamma ray is a packet of energy – lots of energy. Prof. Einstein, what do we do with something that is just a large amount of energy? Energy? That’s E, and E = mc2 Convert the energy to mass.

25. Real data: LAT Single GR Event Displays The green crosses show the detected positions of the charged particles, the blue lines show the reconstructed track trajectories, and the yellow line shows the candidate gamma-ray estimated direction. The red crosses show the detected energy depositions in the calorimeter. The anticoincidence detector shows no incoming charged particles in these events.

26. CGRO/EGRET View of the Universe

27. GLAST view of the Universe • GLAST expects to see thousands of sources!

28. GLAST Launch 6/11/08 • GLAST’s Delta II Rocket takes off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. • Next stop: Earth orbit! • Expected in August: • A new name for GLAST! • First light press conference • So stay tuned……

29. Global Telescope Network • Ground-based observations of GRBs and flaring galaxies • Coordinated with Swift and GLAST satellite data • Sign up to use our telescope or contribute data of your own! • http://gtn.sonoma.edu GORT

30. Fly the Extreme Skies • Follow GRBs as they happen on the GRB Skymap website • Read about each burst, see its time history, location in the sky, constellation and the satellite that discovered it • http://grb.sonoma.edu

31. Play the GRB Lottery • Closest guess to next GRB wins a prize! http://swift.sonoma.edu/grb_lotto/index.php

32. Epo’s Chronicles • Follow the adventures of Epo and Alkina as they travel through the Universe, trying to determine their origins • New “eposodes” every Monday! • You can find all of our projects at: • http://epo.sonoma.edu

33. Backups Follow

34. Hypernova • A billion trillion times the power from the Sun

35. Catastrophic Mergers • Death spiral of 2 neutron stars or black holes