Related papers: Measuring Cosmic Elements with Gamma-Ray Telescope…
Gamma-rays from radioactive 26Al (half life ~7.2 10^5 yr) provide a 'snapshot' view of ongoing nucleosynthesis in the Galaxy. The Galaxy is relatively transparent to such gamma-rays, and emission has been found concentrated along the plane…
Radioactive decay of unstable atomic nuclei leads to liberation of nuclear binding energy in the forms of gamma-ray photons and secondary particles (electrons, positrons); their energy then energises surrounding matter. Unstable nuclei are…
Diffuse gamma-ray emission from the decay of radioactive $^{26}$Al is a messenger from the nucleosynthesis activity in our current-day galaxy. Because this material is attributed to ejections from massive stars and their supernovae, the…
The nuclear $\gamma$-ray lines in the MeV range of the electromagnetic spectrum hold a vast variety of astrophysical, particle-physical, and fundamental physical information that is otherwise extreme difficult to access. MeV $\gamma$-ray…
Gamma-ray line observations provide a versatile tool for studies of nucleosynthesis processes and supernova physics. In particular, the observation of radioactive species in the interstellar medium probes recent nucleosynthesis activity on…
Gamma-ray line emission from the radioactive decay of 26Al reflects nucleosynthesis in massive stars and supernovae. We use INTEGRAL 26Al measurements to characterize the distribution and characteristics of 26Al source regions throughout…
Measurements of high-energy photons from cosmic sources of nuclear radiation through ESA's INTEGRAL mission have advanced our knowledge: New data with high spectral resolution showed that characteristic gamma-ray lines from radioactive…
Recent observations of the diffuse Galactic gamma-ray glow at 1.809 MeV, attributed to the radioactive decay of 26Al, point towards a massive star origin of this radioactive isotope. Wolf Rayet stars and core-collapse supernovae appear to…
Gamma-ray Astronomy studies cosmic accelerators through their electromagnetic radiation in the energy range between ~100 MeV and ~100 TeV. The present most sensitive observations in this energy band are performed, from space, by the Large…
The Gamma Ray Imaging Spectrometer (GRIS) recently observed the gamma-ray emission from the Galactic center region. We have detected the 1809 keV Galactic 26Al emission at a significance level of 6.8-sigma but have found no evidence for…
Gamma-ray line emission from radioactive decay of 60Fe provides constraints on nucleosynthesis in massive stars and supernovae. The spectrometer SPI on board INTEGRAL has accumulated nearly three years of data on gamma-ray emission from the…
Since its launch in October 2002, ESA's INTEGRAL observatory has enabled significant advances to be made in the study of Galactic nucleosynthesis. In particular, the imaging Ge spectrometer SPI combines for the first time the diagnostic…
OB associations and young open clusters constitute the most prolific nucleosynthesis sites in our Galaxy. The combined activity of stellar winds and core-collapse supernovae ejects significant amounts of freshly synthesised nuclei into the…
The most energetic part of the electromagnetic spectrum bears the purest clues to the synthesis of atomic nuclei in the universe. The decay of radioactive species, synthesized in stellar environments and ejected into the interstellar…
Massive stars are a major source of chemical elements in the cosmos, ejecting freshly produced nuclei through winds and core-collapse supernova explosions into the interstellar medium. Among the material ejected, long lived radioisotopes,…
The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope provides both direct and indirect measurements of Galactic cosmic rays (CR). The LAT high-statistics observations of the 7 GeV - 1 TeV electron plus positron spectrum and…
The cosmic evolution of the chemical elements from the Big Bang to the present time is driven by nuclear fusion reactions inside stars and stellar explosions. A cycle of matter recurrently re-processes metal-enriched stellar ejecta into the…
Nuclear gamma-ray lines constitute the most genuine diagnostic tool of nuclear astrophysics, since they allow for an unambiguous identification of isotopic species. Continuous improvement in instrumentation led to the discovery of several…
The presence of radioactive $^{26}$Al at 1.8 MeV reflects ongoing nucleosynthesis in the Milky Way. Diffuse emission from its decay can be measured with gamma-ray telescopes in space. The intensity, line shape, and spatial distribution of…
The search for gamma-ray line emission from the radioactive decay of 60Fe figures among the prime scientific objectives of the INTEGRAL mission. 60Fe is believed to be primarily produced in core-collapse supernovae, although other sites,…