For the first time, an international collaboration of scientists has detected extremely high-energy gamma rays, the most powerful type of light, coming from the outermost regions of an unusual star system within our own galaxy. The source is microquasar SS 433, a black hole that gobbles up stuff from a nearby companion star and blasts out powerful jets of material. The team’s observations, described in the October 4 issue of the journal Nature, represent the most energetic radiation ever detected from a microquasar in our galaxy.
While they wait at the Pole for the first arriving flights of the season, there are still chores to do, like snow removal. The snowcat in this image is poised for action.
The main entrance to the South Pole station is known as Destination Alpha—this image shows a view out onto the frosty tundra from there at early sunrise.
The launch of the so-called IceCube Upgrade—which will deploy seven new strings at the bottom of the detector array—sets a milestone in what IceCubers have designed as an incremental extension of the Antarctic detector.
A team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has developed an algorithm for identifying images of cosmic rays taken by smartphone cameras. The new algorithm uses data from the Distributed Electronic Cosmic-ray Observatory (DECO), a smartphone application that uses the phone’s camera sensor to detect cosmic rays and other energetic particles.
The equinox occurred last week, and the sun has finally risen above the horizon. The sky in turn is showing off an array of beautiful colors, providing a nice backdrop for outdoor photos.
