Status of space-based gamma-ray astronomy

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current status of space-based gamma-ray astronomy, highlighting key discoveries made by the Fermi Large Area Telescope over its 8-year mission, and discusses the insights gained into extreme cosmic environments.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive summary of recent advancements and discoveries in gamma-ray astronomy from space, emphasizing the role of the Fermi mission.

Findings

Identification of new gamma-ray sources

Insights into cosmic ray propagation

Detection of high-energy phenomena in the universe

Abstract

Gamma-ray observations give us a direct view into the most extreme environments of the universe. They help us to study astronomical particle accelerators as supernovae remnants, pulsars, active galaxies or gamma-ray bursts and help us to understand the propagation of cosmic rays through our Milky Way. This article summarizes the status of gamma-ray observations from space; it is the write-up of a rapporteur talk given at the 34th ICRC in The Hague, The Netherlands. The primary instrument used in the presented studies is the Large Area Telescope on-board the Fermi Spacecraft, which images the whole gamma-ray sky at photon energies between 20 MeV and 2 TeV. The Fermi mission is currently in its 8th year of observations. This article will review many of the exciting discoveries made in this time, focusing on the most recent ones.