Fermi Sees the Moon in Gamma Rays

Credit:
NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
Published:
August 19, 2019
These images show the steadily improving view of the Moon’s gamma-ray glow from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Each 5-by-5-degree image is centered on the Moon and shows gamma rays with energies above 31 million electron volts, or tens of millions of times that of visible light. At these energies, the Moon is actually brighter than the Sun. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. This image sequence shows how longer exposure, ranging from two to 128 months (10.7 years), improved the view.
More information: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13236