New space telescope begins to comb the cosmos

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A new space telescope revealed the glowing gas of the Milky Way, pulsating stars and a flaring faraway galaxy as it began its mission to unveil the mysteries of cosmic gamma rays, NASA said.

The US space agency released Tuesday the first all-sky map created by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, previously known as GLAST, with two high-tech instruments that scientists hope will help them uncover mysteries.

The image was created with 95 hours of the instruments' first observations, displaying the probe's scientific potential. It took years for NASA's now-defunct Compton Gamma-ray Observatory to produce a similar map.

Fermi's telescope scans the entire sky every three hours.

"These fast snapshots will let scientists monitor rapidly...