A New Population of Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Sources in the Milky Way

2005/03/24 by F. A. Aharonian, F. Aharonian, A. G. Akhperjanian +98 · 19 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #COSMIC cancer database #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxy #Gamma ray #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #High energy #Milky Way #Particle physics #Physics #Population #Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1108643

published as Science 307:1938-1942,2005

openalex publication_date 2005/03/24 · arxiv created 2005/04/18 · arxiv updated 2014/10/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Very high energy gamma-rays probe the long-standing mystery of the origin of cosmic rays. Produced in the interactions of accelerated particles in astrophysical objects, they can be used to image cosmic particle accelerators. A first sensitive survey of the inner part of the Milky Way with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) reveals a population of eight previously unknown firmly detected sources of very high energy gamma-rays. At least two have no known radio or x-ray counterpart and may be representative of a new class of "dark" nucleonic cosmic ray sources.

Citations

• Revealing the Obscured Supernova Remnant Kesteven 32 withChandra
• Ultracompact HII regions: the impact of newly formed massive stars on their environment

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