Thunderstorms make antimatter?

Thunderstorms make antimatter? whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa????? Yeah, that was my reaction when I read a recent article that Courtney sent me. Scientists using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected beams of antimatter. This antimatter is produced above thunderstorms by gamma-ray flash bursts associated with lightning.

Scientists estimate that world-wide there are approximately 500 gamma ray bursts from lightening daily worldwide. Most going undetected. Even though scientists have known about high energy bursts associated with thunderstorms, the confirmation coming from Fermi was a bit of a surprise. The Fermi Space Telescope is looking into deep space for tell tale gamma ray burst in space. So when Fermi scientists found their craft being bombarded with anti-matter electrons or positrons from thunderstorms only a few thousand miles away on Earth, you can imagine the surprised reaction. So much so that Michael Briggs, a member of Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor presented these findings during a recent briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle.

Ilana Harrus, Fermi program scientist has said that the Fermi mission has proven to be an amazing tool to probe the universe. Now we learn that it can discover mysteries much, much closer to home!

NASA Fermi article

Check out the NASA video, on the subject, below.

Gamma Ray Explosion Blinds Swift

Long before our sun and planets formed and massive star collapsed to form a black hole. On June 21 of this year, the gamma ray burst from this explosion reached Earth and promptly raised havoc with several satellite systems including the Swift Observatory.

"Light" from the explosion was was 140 times brighter than the brightest steady source of X-rays currently known making this the most powerful source of x-rays ever recorded.

The burst was so bright that it temporarily blinded the Swift satellite.

The Telegraph via Dvice

Is there a gama-ray deathstar taking aim at us?

A rotating binary star system is a ticking time bomb, ready to throw out a beam of high-energy gamma rays – and Earth may be right in the line of fire. Known as Wolf-Rayet WR 104 - astronomers say that it is actually a bloated red central star with a binary companion consisting of a small blue star. What makes this pair dangerous is that the red star is highly unstable and may collapse at any moment. When it does, it will pull in the blue companion and emit powerful gamma ray bursts from both poles. When these bursts occur they will fry everything in their path. Making it the universe's largest microwave. What is even more un-nerving is the Solar system is staring right down the north pole of WR 104. Since gamma ray burst travel at the speed of light, the Earth will literally never know what hit it.

What makes this extraordinarily interesting is writer Shaun Saunders nailed this home with his story Last Light which we read on Beam Me Up some months ago. His story is available in his newest book "Navigating the New World"and is also available in the show's story archives

X-ray and gamma-ray laser guns - coming soon.

A US researcher has discovered a way to generate X-ray and gamma-ray laser light without needing large energy input to begin with.

Since Einstein theorized laser light in 1917, it has been a given that it is impossible to generate laser light in the X-ray or gamma-ray range of the electromagnetic spectrum, due to the enormous energy required to to excite atoms to such high states.

"We do not have good sources of X-ray and gamma rays," said Kishor Kapale, an assistant professor of physics at Western Illinois University. Kapale's research, "Lasing Without Inversion: Counterintuitive Population Dynamics in the Transient Regime," published in the prestigious Physical Review Letters.

Kapale's study, however, demonstrates a novel method to manipulate the atoms in the sample so that even a small number of naturally existing high-energy atoms can cause laser light generation via lasing. In the process, an initially more populated ground (lowest energy) state becomes more populated with time. "This will allow the generation of X-ray and gamma-ray laser light without needing large energy input to begin with. " Kapale said.

What does one do with all those cheap xrays and gamma rays? Space opera afficionados will instantly see the possibility of a ray-projecting phaser-style sidearm, tuneable from nearly imperceptible discomfort to blasting-down-Godzilla strength, while more pacific futurists may visualize precise control of the behavior of quantum systems leading to progress in the important upcoming area of information processing known as quantum information (ansible and teleporter fans take note). Image source Stanford Linear Accelerator Center