{"id":9064,"date":"2026-05-20T13:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/ground_post\/nasas-fermi-glimpses-power-source-of-supercharged-supernovae\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:23:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:23:00","slug":"nasas-fermi-glimpses-power-source-of-supercharged-supernovae","status":"publish","type":"ground_post","link":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/ground_post\/nasas-fermi-glimpses-power-source-of-supercharged-supernovae\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Fermi Glimpses Power Source of Supercharged Supernovae"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p>An international team studying data from NASA\u2019s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope concludes the mission detected a rare, unusually luminous supernova. The researchers say it likely received its power-up from a supermagnetized neutron star born in the stellar collapse that triggered the explosion.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fermi Spies a Supercharged Supernova\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Oq9C7XTrFxk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gamma rays detected by NASA\u2019s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope gave scientists a look under the hood of a rare supernova that produced much more light than normal.<br \/><strong>NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Fermi mission is part of NASA\u2019s fleet of observatories monitoring the changing cosmos to help humanity better understand how the universe works.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor nearly 20 years, astronomers have <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/fermi\/nasas-fermi-mission-sees-no-gamma-rays-from-nearby-supernova\/\">searched Fermi data<\/a> for gamma-ray signals from thousands of supernovae, and while a few intriguing hints have been reported, none were definitive until now,\u201d study lead Fabio Acero at the French <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnrs.fr\/en\/the-cnrs\">National Centre for Scientific Research<\/a> (CNRS) and the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.universite-paris-saclay.fr\/en\">University of Paris-Saclay<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aanda.org\/10.1051\/0004-6361\/202558547\">paper <\/a>describing the findings published Wednesday in the journal Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics.<\/p>\n<p>Core-collapse supernovae occur when the energy-producing center of a star many times our Sun\u2019s mass runs out of fuel, collapses under its own weight, and explodes. During the collapse, a city-sized neutron star or an even smaller black hole may form. A blast wave blows away the rest of the star, which rapidly expands as a hot, dense cloud of ionized gas.<\/p>\n<p>In the last couple of decades, nearly 400 exceptional core-collapse supernovae have been identified. Each of these events, dubbed superluminous supernovae, produced 10 or more times the amount of visible light normally seen.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, a study led by Li Shang at Anhui University in Hefei, China, noted that Fermi\u2019s Large Area Telescope may have seen gamma rays \u2014 the most energetic form of light \u2014 from a superluminous supernova that occurred years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Dubbed SN 2017egm, this supercharged outburst occurred in galaxy NGC 3191, located about 440 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Even at this distance, the explosion remains one of the closest of its type to us on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe searched for gamma rays from the six nearest superluminous supernovae seen during the first 16 years of Fermi\u2019s mission,\u201d said Guillem Mart\u00ed-Devesa, a researcher previously at the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/portale.units.it\/en\">University of Trieste<\/a> in Italy and now a fellow at the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.csic.es\/\">Institute of Space Sciences<\/a> in Barcelona, Spain. \u201cOnly SN 2017egm shows evidence for gamma rays, confirming earlier hints that some supernovae can be as luminous in gamma rays as they are in visible light. This opens up a new window for studying these fascinating events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Theorists have debated the possible energy sources that give these explosions their extra punch. High on the list has been the formation of a magnetar, a type of neutron star with the strongest magnetic fields known \u2014 up to 1,000 times the intensity of typical neutron stars. That\u2019s 10 trillion times stronger than a refrigerator magnet.<\/p>\n<p>The team undertook a deeper analysis of the supernova\u2019s observed optical and gamma-ray features to compare how well different theoretical models reproduced them. A model developed by co-authors Indrek Vurm at the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ut.ee\/en\">University of Tartu<\/a> in Estonia and Brian Metzger at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.columbia.edu\">Columbia University<\/a> in New York City traced how light and particles produced by a newborn magnetar would move outward and interact with the supernova\u2019s expanding debris.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists expect a newly formed magnetar to spin a few hundred times a second. This rapid rotation produces a strong outflow of electrons and positrons, their antimatter counterparts, that forms a vast cloud of energetic particles.<\/p>\n<p>Within this cloud \u2014 called a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/universe\/astronomers-find-the-first-wind-nebula-around-a-magnetar\/\">magnetar wind nebula<\/a> \u2014 various interactions <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/universe\/nasas-fermi-spots-superflares-in-the-crab-nebula\/\">fuel the production<\/a> and absorption of gamma rays. For example, an electron and a positron can annihilate into a pair of gamma-ray photons, or two gamma rays can collide and produce the particles. In these and other ways, gamma rays interact with the supernova debris. Unable to escape directly, they become reprocessed, downshifted into lower-energy visible light that provides the supernova with its extra boost in luminosity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbout three months after the collapse, as the supernova debris expands and cools, the gamma rays can begin to leak out,\u201d Acero said. \u201cThis magnetar model best reproduces the supernova\u2019s luminosity and the arrival time of its gamma rays during the first months, but we see room for improvement at later times, when the visible light fades quite irregularly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Acero and his colleagues suggest that additional processes likely played contributing roles during SN 2017egm\u2019s long fade-out. These include debris falling back onto the magnetar and interactions between the blast wave and matter ejected by the star in the centuries prior to its demise.<\/p>\n<p>The team also examined how well a new ground-based gamma-ray facility, the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ctao.org\">Cerenkov Telescope Array Observatory<\/a>, might detect events like SN 2017egm. With about 50 hours of observing time, they say, a similar supernova could be detected out to about 500 million light-years. Our understanding of phenomena like SN 2017egm will improve thanks to cooperation between such facilities and NASA\u2019s fleet of space-based observatories that watch for rapid changes in the universe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe magnetar central engine mechanism discussed in this paper builds upon a lot of observational and theoretical advances in magnetars over the last 20 years,\u201d said Judy Racusin, a deputy project scientist for the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/fermi\/\">Fermi mission<\/a> at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/goddard\/\">NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/a> in Greenbelt, Maryland. \u201cObserving gamma rays from supernovae will give us a new way to explore their inner workings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>By <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/fermi\/nasas-fermi-glimpses-power-source-of-supercharged-supernovae\/mailto:&quot;francis.j.reddy@nasa.gov\">Francis Reddy<\/a><br \/><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/nasa.gov\/goddard\/\">NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/a>, Greenbelt, Md.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Media Contact:<br \/><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/fermi\/nasas-fermi-glimpses-power-source-of-supercharged-supernovae\/mailto:claire.andreoli@nasa.gov\">Claire Andreoli<\/a><br \/>301-286-1940<br \/><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/fermi\/nasas-fermi-glimpses-power-source-of-supercharged-supernovae\/mailto:claire.andreoli@nasa.gov\">claire.andreoli@nasa.gov<\/a><br \/>NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/fermi\/nasas-fermi-glimpses-power-source-of-supercharged-supernovae\/?rand=6321\" target=\"_blank\">Source link <\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An international team studying data from NASA\u2019s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope concludes the mission detected a rare, unusually luminous supernova. The researchers say it likely received its power-up from a supermagnetized neutron star born in the stellar collapse that triggered the explosion. Gamma rays detected by NASA\u2019s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope gave scientists a look under the hood of a&hellip;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":99027,"featured_media":9065,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[348,343,331,2530,2531,2532,2533],"ground_category":[137,138],"class_list":["post-9064","ground_post","type-ground_post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fermi","tag-glimpses","tag-nasas","tag-power","tag-source","tag-supercharged","tag-supernovae","ground_category-1-grounds-science","ground_category-1-1-discover-universe"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sn-animation-frame.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ground_post\/9064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ground_post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ground_post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99027"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ground_post\/9064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9064"},{"taxonomy":"ground_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ground_category?post=9064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}