Off the Subject

We’re off the subject of birds today in order to bring you this photograph:

The Gamma Ray Sky NASA Photo

That is a visible light rendering of the gamma-ray sky, stitching together an entire year’s worth of observations from the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope.  One measurement made with that telescope proved, yet again, that Einstein was right that the speed of light is constant, no matter its color, its energy, its direction, or how you yourself move in relation to it.  After traveling 7.3 billion years, gamma rays of differing energies and wavelengths made it to earth within nine-tenths of a second of each other, precisely as predicted by Einstein’s theory.

Being a physicist after Einstein must be like being a poet after Shakespeare, a landscape photographer after Ansel Adams, or a painter of birds after Audubon.

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The photo and information is from today’s New York Times Science section.

Tags: Einstein, Fermi Telescope, gamma rays, speed of light