"Unveiling the Dazzling Gamma-Ray Sky: NASA's Fermi Telescope Reveals Cosmic Fireworks"

A new NASA animation shows what the sky over Earth would look like to humans if we could see high-energy gamma-ray light. The animation represents a cosmic firework display created as Earth's atmosphere is belted by gamma rays from astrophysical sources and powerful cosmic events. Over 90% of the cosmic firework gamma-rays in the animation originate from active galaxies called "blazars," in which feeding supermassive black holes blast out jets of material and radiation directly toward Earth. The footage was created using data collected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which has been examining the gamma-ray sky from space for nearly 15 years.