Space & The Universe

Physics in Action

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Our Very Own Black Hole

The Milky Way is a vast spiral, similar to our neighbor the Andromeda galaxy. Read More »


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People in Physics

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Vincent Rodgers

When Vincent Rodgers was six years old, he and his twin brother Victor got toy robots for Christmas.  "The most fascinating thing about this," Rodgers recalls, “was a panel you could take off the side [so] you could actually see inside." Read More »


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Physics Buzz Blog

All in a Gamma Ray.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Have a look at the image above; you are viewing the first map of the sky made entirely of gamma ray wavelengths! The thin golden-orange streak across what looks like a blue egg is actually gas and dust accumulated in the plane of our Milky Way. These menacing little photons, gamma rays, are the most energetic in the spectrum, and are emitted from the nucleus of certain radioactive atoms.The gamma rays situated in the Milky Way are caused by cosmic rays, super-fast (mostly proton) particles coll.. Read more »