The galactic plane glows in gamma rays. This EGRET all-sky map shows an image of the sky at gamma-ray energies above 100 MeV. (MeV is one million electron volts; the energy of a photon of visible light is about 2-3 electron volts.) The brighter, central area shows gamma rays created by high-velocity atoms colliding with interstellar gas in the Milky Way. The Vela, Geminga and Crab pulsars are visible as bright spots along the diameter (galactic plane) in the right portion of the picture. The gamma-ray blazar 3C279 is the brightest spot of emission above the plane. This map was produced by combining EGRET observations from the first year of Compton Observatory operations.
CREDIT: The EGRET team, NASA/GSFC, using the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
