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Gamma-Ray Activity in the Crab Nebula: The Exceptional Flare of April 2011The Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi satellite observed a gamma-ray flare in the Crab nebula lasting for approximately nine days in April of 2011. The source, which at optical wavelengths has a size of approximately 11 ly across, doubled its gamma-ray flux within eight hours. The peak photon flux was (186 +/- 6) x 10(exp -7) /square cm/s above 100 MeV, which corresponds to a 30-fold increase compared to the average value. During the flare, a new component emerged in the spectral energy distribution, which peaked at an energy of (375 +/- 26) MeV at flare maximum. The observations imply that the emission region was relativistically beamed toward us and that variations in its motion are responsible for the observed spectral variability.
Document ID
20120009461
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Buehler, R. (Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
Scargle, J. D. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Blandford, R. D. (Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
Baldini, L (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Pisa, Italy)
Baring, M. G. (Rice Univ. Houston, TX, United States)
Belfiore, A. (California Univ. Santa Cruz, CA, United States)
Charles, E. (Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
Chiang, J. (Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
DAmmando, F. (Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (INAF-IASF) Palermo, Italy)
Dermer, C. D. (Naval Research Lab. Washington, DC, United States)
Funk, S, (Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
Grove, J. E. (Naval Research Lab. Washington, DC, United States)
Harding, A. K. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Hays, E. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Kerr, M. (Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
Massaro, F. (Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
Mazziotta, M. N. (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Bari, Italy)
Romani, R. W. (Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA, United States)
SazParkinson, P, M. (California Univ. Santa Cruz, CA, United States)
Tennant, A. F. (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Weisskopf, M. C. (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
February 1, 2012
Subject Category
Astronomy
Report/Patent Number
GSFC.JA.6048.2012
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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