Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik
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Highlights
 HM Cancri Artwork: Rob Haynes, Louisiana State University |
Most extreme binary shows orbital period of a mere 5 minutesThat is real fast: Two suns orbit each other in a mere 5.4 minutes. This makes HM Cancri the binary star system with by far the shortest known orbital period - and at the same time the smallest binary known. Its size is equivalent to no more than a quarter of the distance from the Earth to the Moon, about 100,000 kilometres. This has been shown by an international team of astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutions.
Original publicationApJ 711, L138-L142 (2010);
MPG press release
Warwick University press release
Keck observatory press release
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 Photon arrival times (for details see Nature paper) Image: Nature |
Testing Einstein's Special Relativity with
Gamma-Ray Burst Photons Einstein's special relativity postulates that observers see the same speed of light in vacuum, independent of photon-energy. At a fundamental scale (the Planck scale), quantum effects are expected to affect the nature of space-time, and Lorentz invariance might become violated. MPE scientists have been involved in a key test of such violation, namely the possible variation of photon speed with energy over cosmological light-travel times. This became possible by the detection of emission from keV up to 31 GeV energies with the Fermi satellite's instruments (GBM, LAT) from the distant and short gamma-ray burst GRB090510. No violation of Lorentz invariance was found to 1 part in 1017, placing the tightest limits so far and eliminating some quantum-gravity theories. (Abdo et al., Nature 461, Oct 2009) Links: Contact: J. GreinerA. von Kienlin |
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In this picture the afterglow of GRB090423 is the red object shining only
in some of the used color channels. Image: GROND/MPE |
Gamma-Ray Burst 090423 detected at a record distance
Following a Gamma-Ray burst alarm of the NASA Swift Satellite on April
23, several groups world-wide started searching for the afterglow emission.
The MPE built
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31.7 hours after GRB 080916C exploded, the MPE Gamma-Ray Burst Optical/Near-Infrared Detector (GROND), began acquiring images of the blast's fading afterglow (circled). Image: MPE / GROND |
NASA'S FERMI TELESCOPE SEES MOST EXTREME GAMMA-RAY BLAST YET
The first gamma-ray burst to be seen with substantial GeV emission from
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is one for the record books. The
blast had the greatest total energy, the fastest motions and the
highest-energy initial emissions ever seen.
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Radio map of the supernova remnant CTA-1. The position of the pulsar and it's light curve are indicated. Image credit: NASA / S. Pineault, DRAO / G. Kanbach, MPE. |
Young pulsar shines in the gamma-ray sky
For the first time scientists have discovered a rotating neutron star - a pulsar - by means of its gamma radiation. The international team led by Gottfried Kanbach from the MPE used the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope for their observations. The neutron star is one of only ten high-energy pulsars discovered so far.
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Artist's impression of the observed object Image Credit: A. Stefanescu, MPE |
Surprising Flashes from a possible Magnetar By means of the high-speed photometer OPTIMA of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), a team of MPE scientists might have detected an unexpected new sub-category of astronomical objects. It appears to be a magnetar with bursts in the visible part of the spectrum, in contrast to the X-ray and gamma flashes, which are considered to be characteristic for magnetars.
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Image Credit: MPE |
GROND confirms farthest-ever Gamma-Ray Burst
GROND, the Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Near-IR Detector, has found the most distant gamma-ray burst ever detected. The observation demonstrates the excellent performance of GROND, which was developed at the MPE. The burst occurred less than 825 million years after the Universe began. The star that popped off this shot seen across the cosmos died when the Universe was less than one-sixteenth its present age.
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First all-sky image taken by the Large Area Telescope of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
Image Credit: |
GLAST First Light
GLAST, the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, has begun its mission of
exploring the universe in high-energy gamma rays. The spacecraft and its
revolutionary instruments passed their orbital checkout with flying colors.
GBM, the GLAST Burst Monitor, spotted 31 gamma-ray bursts in its first
month of operations.
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Artist's concept: GLAST in orbit Image Credit: General Dynamics C4 Systems |
NASA's GLAST Space Telescope takes off
The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope GLAST was launched on June 11, 2008 aboard a Delta II from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, USA. In collaboration with other institutes the MPE was involved in the development of the secondary instrument GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM). The new space telescope will detect gamma-ray bursts and so open the high-energy Universe to exploration. Because of problems with the Delta II rocket the launch had been rescheduled several times during the past months.
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The artistic view shows a cataclysmic variable, the kind of close binary systems that host classical novae Credit: Mark A. Garlick |
Turbulent Disk
A team led by Gloria Sala from the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics has studied the Nova V5116 Sagittarii with the ESA X-ray observatory XMM-Newton and found abrupt decreases and increases of the flux, but an unchanged white dwarf atmosphere temperature both in the low- and the high-flux periods. A partial eclipse caused by an asymmetric accretion disk might explain the results.
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Antimatter (above) and X-ray binaries (below) show a similar distribution in the central region of the Milky Way. Images: G. Weidenspointner, MPE |
Antimatter from X-ray Binaries? A first hint at the production of positrons by X-ray binaries in the Galaxy
Observations with the European INTEGRAL satellite give scientists a first clue
to the possible origin of the mysterious antimatter in our Galaxy. Antimatter
is distributed non-symmetric in the central region of the Milky Way much
similar to the distribution of X-ray binaries in the Galaxy.
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Traces of the radioactive decay of Fe-60 in the interstellar gas of the Galaxy. The picture shows an overlay of the weak gamma-ray lines at 1173 and 1332 to enhance the signal. Picture: MPE |
Radioactive iron, a window to the stars Scientist from MPE using ESA's orbiting gamma-ray observatory, Integral, have made a pioneering unequivocal discovery of radioactive iron-60 in our galaxy that provides powerful insight into the workings of massive stars that pervade and shape it.
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NJP Focus on Gamma Ray Bursts |
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The first contributions to a focus issue on Gamma-Ray Bursts,
edited by Charles Dermer, Dieter Hartmann and Jochen Greiner, have
now been published in
New Journal of Physics (NJP).
All contributions are permanently free to read at Further contributions to this issue will appear in the near future. |
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Swift detects most distant Gamma-Ray Burst ever observed |
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Life-cycle of a star. Gamma-ray bursts are the beacons of star death and black hole birth. Image: Nicolle Rager Fuller/NSF |
Scientists using NASA's Swift satellite and several ground-based
telescopes have detected the most distant explosion yet,
a gamma-ray burst from the edge of the visible universe at redshift of
z = 6.29. This powerful burst was detected September 4. It marks the death of a massive star and the birth of a black hole. It comes from an era soon after stars and galaxies first formed, about 500 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
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Strongest so far observed Gamma-Ray Burst of a Magnetar measured
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Magnetar with an extreme magnetic field. Image: R. Mallozzi/NASA |
On December 27, 2004 at 21:30:26 UT the earth was hit by a huge wave front of gamma and X-rays. It was the strongest flux of high-energetic gamma radiation measured so far. The wave front was in addition more intense than the strongest radiation burst measured so far from our sun. The remarkable aspect of this discovery is the origin of this radiation: it originates from a tiny celestial body with an extreme density, a neutron star, a so-called magnetar, and with an extremely strong magnetic field which is located on the other side of our Milky Way at a distance of about 50 000 light years. It is expected that this event will cast new light on the physics of magnetars and that it will contribute to solve an old puzzle concerning the gamma-ray bursts.
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First Light for all Swift Telescopes |
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X-ray telescope
 Cas A Image: NASA The X-ray telescope (XRT) onboard Swift captured it's first light image by pointing towards the supernova remnant Cas A. |
Burst Alert telescope Cygnus Region Image: NASA The Burst Alert telescope (BAT) has seen it's first light by pointing towards the Cygnus region and detecting Cyg X-1 (top) and Cyg X-3 (bottom). |
UV and Optical telescope M 101 Image: University of Leicester, UK The UV-Optical telescope (UVOT) took it's first light picture on February 1st, 2005 pointing twards the galaxy M 101. |
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The first Gamma-ray Burst seen by Swift was detected on December 11, 2004.
The first Gamma-Ray Burst afterglow was observed on December 23, 2004. The decay light curve, the spectrum and an exact position of the burst was measured. |
GRB041211 Image: NASA |
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This is also good news for MPE, as we are actively participating in the Swift project (calibration at Panter facility, software development, and the definition of the up-coming Swift operations procedures).
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Last update: 2010-08-10 by
H. SteinleContact person:
J. Greiner