Fermi finds record-breaking binary in galaxy next door

Using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and other facilities, an international team of scientists has found the first gamma-ray binary in another galaxy and the most luminous one ever seen. The dual-star system, dubbed LMC P3, contains a massive star and a crushed stellar core that interact to produce a cyclic flood of gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light.

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Requires a lot more than Fermi alone. Fermi has terrible resolution, nowhere near enough on its own.

What really startles me about this find is that ANY telescope has the ability to see … oh wait, could this be a computer simulation based on Fermi results.

the brightest X-ray emission occurs opposite the gamma-ray peak, so when one reaches maximum the other is at minimum. Radio data exhibit the same period and out-of-phase relationship with the gamma-ray peak

Strange – why?

The system is the first gamma-ray binary discovered in another galaxy and is the most luminous known in gamma rays.