NASA Telescope Finds the First, Brightest Gamma-Ray Binary in Nearby Galaxy

A gamma-ray binary called LMC P3 has been spotted by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

LMC P3 according to NASA's official statement is the first to be detected in the nearby galaxy and is also the brightest among the only five systems detected over all.

"Fermi has detected only five of these systems in our own galaxy, so finding one so luminous and distant is quite exciting," said lead researcher Robin Corbet at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

A study published in Science Mag defines a Gamma-ray binary as a very rare system that contains neutron stars or black holes orbiting around massive stars. They are named as such because they radiate most of their energy in the form of Gamma rays.

"Gamma-ray binaries are prized because the gamma-ray output changes significantly during each orbit and sometimes over longer time scales. This variation lets us study many of the emission processes common to other gamma-ray sources in unique detail," Corbet added.

IBTimes noted that the system was detected in 2012 but was initially considered as a high-mass X-ray binary, which are thought to have instigated as gamma-ray binaries subsequent to the supernova. It was only recently that it was recategorized to a Gamma-binary.

"It is certainly a surprise to detect a gamma-ray binary in another galaxy before we find more of them in our own," said Guillaume Dubus, a team member at the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble in France.

"One possibility is that the gamma-ray binaries Fermi has found are rare cases where a supernova formed a neutron star with exceptionally rapid spin, which would enhance how it produces accelerated particles and gamma rays."

The findings about the luminous binary were published in the Astrophysical Journal on Oct. 1.