NASA Has Given Godzilla an Official Gamma-Ray Constellation
NASA once again proves their geeky awesomeness by giving the legendary Japanese Kaiju monster Godzilla its very own constellation! And not just any constellation, it’s a gamma-ray constellation!
Some of the more recent constellations Godzilla joins include the Little Prince, the TARDIS from Doctor Who, the U.S.S. Enterprise, and even the Hulk. You can see all of these fun gamma-ray constellations here.
I also have some detailed information on the Godzilla constellation and what it is that makes it so special. I actually found this to be pretty fascinating. Check it out:
“Godzilla's trademark weapon is its "heat ray," a fiery jet. This bears at least a passing resemblance to gamma-ray jets associated with black holes and neutron stars.
“When matter falls toward a black hole, vast amounts of energy are released. Gas falling toward the black hole is compressed and heated to millions of degrees and glows brightly near the black hole. Strong magnetic fields, combined with the black hole's rotation, can accelerate some of these charged particles to velocities approaching the speed of light. Particles accelerated near the black hole's event horizon, the point of no return, can escape along the black hole's spin axis, forming a jet that rushes outward at nearly the speed of light.
“The fast-moving particles in these jets can interact with lower-energy light to produce gamma rays. Fermi sees evidence of gamma-ray jets in many types of so-called active galaxies, which emit far more light than normal and may flare up unpredictably. Astronomers say such galaxies possess active galactic nuclei, or AGN for short, and that the enhanced activity results from the rapid ingestion of matter by a central supermassive black hole.
“Most of the gamma-ray sources visible in the Godzilla constellation are actually AGN, as are more than half the gamma-ray "stars" Fermi has cataloged to date.
“Gamma-ray jets also occur in other types of astrophysical systems. When a massive star runs out of fuel and collapses under its own weight, or when two orbiting neutron stars spiral together and merge, a new black hole — and high-speed jets — may form. The result is a gamma-ray burst, the most powerful explosion in the cosmos. These monstrous blasts, which occur somewhere in the distant universe every day or so according to observations by Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, would make even Godzilla envious.”
This is so cool! I honestly had no idea that there were so many geeky gamma-ray constellations! What do you think about Godzilla getting his own?