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This pulsar’s vast gamma-ray halo may explain a key observation about antimatter near Earth.
[Big Dipper to scale]
Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, the superdense remnants of supernovae explosions.
NASA’s Fermi mission has observed one nearby pulsar, Geminga, for more than 10 years.
The data are now so detailed that when scientists remove background sources…
…Geminga’s faint but huge gamma-ray halo emerges.
This halo precisely matches computer models that account for positron production.
Positrons are antimatter versions of electrons. They’re found near Earth but have no clear origin.
Scientists suspected pulsars to be positron sources. This study confirms it.
As it turns out, Geminga is likely the greatest positron source for Earth.
It alone could produce 20% of the positrons at an energy of 1 TeV seen in orbit.
So pulsars not only shine in the highest-energy light, they also glow in antimatter.
[Explore, Solar System & Beyond]
[NASA]