To celebrate the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope’s 15th anniversary in outer space, NASA has released an ebook authored by our very own Hannah Richter, ’24. 

Our High-Energy Universe: 15 Years with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope chronicles the telescope’s development, launch, technical details, and landmark moments as it travels through space detecting gamma rays, which are produced by some of the universe’s most powerful sources of radiation, including black holes, neutron stars, solar flares, and quasars. Gamma rays help researchers understand the physics around some of the most exotic and volatile entities in our galaxy, and to study cosmic phenomena beyond. 

Our High-Energy Universe details discoveries that resulted from the Fermi telescope data, including gamma-ray bursts—explosions that are orders of magnitude brighter than supernovas—and ongoing research into black holes and the composition of dark matter. 

Hannah began writing the ebook after interning at NASA on the Hubble Space Telescope team. Since becoming an MIT student, she has published stories in Sky & Telescope and will intern at Science Magazine this summer. 

You can download Our High-Energy Universe for free and read more about it here. Congratulations, Hannah.