Fermi Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flash (TGF) Animations

  • Released Monday, January 10, 2011
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NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected beams of antimatter launched by thunderstorms. Acting like enormous particle accelerators, the storms can emit gamma-ray flashes, called TGFs, and high-energy electrons and positrons. Scientists now think that most TGFs produce particle beams and antimatter.

Animation of Fermi's position relative to the Earth when it spotted the TGF in Africa.

Animation of cloud of electrons and positrons following a magnetic field line and striking the Fermi spacecraft, causing it to emit gamma rays. The cloud then returns along the same line and strikes the spacecraft again.

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NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Monday, January 10, 2011.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:53 PM EDT.

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  • Fermi TGF Antimatter (ID: 2010083)
    Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 4:00AM
    Produced by - Robert Crippen (NASA)