04-05-09 Fermi telescope explores high-energy 'space invaders'

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on Fermi detects gamma-rays by tracking the electrons positrons they produce after striking layers of tungsten.This ability also makes the LAT an excellent tool for exploring high-energy cosmic rays.Since its launch last June,NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered a new class of pulsars,probed gamma-ray bursts and watched flaring jets in galaxies billions of light-years away.Today at the American Physical Society meeting in Denver,Colo.,Fermi scientists revealed new details about high-energy particles implicated in a nearby cosmic mystery