A U.S. gamma-ray telescope was launched into space Wednesday on a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The orbiting Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will probe the most energetic form of light. Gamma rays are millions to hundreds of billions of times more powerful than what can be seen with the human eye. Gamma radiation is produced by the most violent phenomena in the universe, such as the gravitational pulls of black holes and the magnetic fields of star cores so dense with matter that a spoonful would weigh a billion tons. The $690 million GLAST will probe such objects and hundreds more of unknown origin. It continues unfinished work by the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, which operated in orbit from 1991 to 2000. “Every time you push the boundaries and do something an order of magnitude better than you've done before, you always [end] up with new discoveries,” said John Morse, the director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) astrophysics division at the agency's Washington headquarters. GLAST has a wide field of view and will scan every three hours. The telescope was designed to last five years, but scientists are hoping it will last twice as long.
