HEAPOW: The High Energy Year in Pictures (2014 Dec 29)
What a year it's been, at least from a high-energy astrophysics standpoint. We started out with what may be the first observed instance of a black hole swallowing a star in a dwarf galaxy in the galaxy cluster Abell 1795. We had controversial reports of weird asymmetries in the cosmic microwave background, the echo of the Big Bang, and a claim of the first detection of gravity waves from the Big Bang, another result astrophysicists are re-examining. We had an identification of a strange X-ray emission line which might be the signal of dark matter. We danced with Gamma-ray bursts. We watched the X-rays from the supermassive star Eta Car fade as its companion star passed behind it, nearly skimming its surface. And we were scared by the Sun. We said happy birthday to XMM-Newton, Chandra and Swift, and probed the event horizon of a black hole with NuSTAR. What's left to do in 2015? Stayed tuned, and happy new year.
| << Previous HEAPOW | High Energy Astrophysics Picture of the Week | Next HEAPOW >> |