HEAPOW: Fermi at Five (2013 Aug 19)
Spacetime flies. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope was launched on June 11, 2008, and began science operations shortly thereafter, on August 11, 2008. For the past five years, Fermi has been scanning the entire Gamma-ray universe, hunting for active black holes, collapsed, merging and exploding stars, and measuring the smoothness of spacetime itself, while dodging danger and operating near-flawlessly. The image above shows a map of the entire Gamma-ray sky obtained by Fermi's Large Area Telescope. The Milky Way Galaxy stretches across the middle of the image from left to right, while above and below the plane of the Milky Way, the sky is dotted with emission from supermassive black holes embedded within active galaxies. Fermi is continuing its watch of the Universe, and, in the upcoming year, will be especially focussed on the search for the identity of Dark Matter, the glue that holds the Universe together. All Fermi data are available shortly after being obtained; take a look for yourself at the wonders of the Gamma-ray sky.
GSFC: Fermi Celebrates 5 Years in Space, Enters Extended Mission
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