Released: 24-Feb-2013 6:00 PM EST
Cosmic Waves Origins -Astrophysicist/Team Leader Stefan Funk Answers Questions in Live Webcast 2/28
The Kavli Foundation

Using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, a research team led by Dr. Stefan Funk of KIPAC was able to track gamma rays – the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, or light – back to the remnants of supernovae explosions where they were born as decay products of collisions between cosmic rays and lower energy particles. The finding offers the first astrophysical evidence for how cosmic rays are produced, as well as where they are generated: in the shock waves that emanate from an exploded star.