Highlights 2009

The Fermi gamma-ray space telescope  [1] has detected the most violent gamma-ray burst ever recorded; a gigantic explosion marking the death of a massive star. Light from this explosion, captured by the Fermi observatory on September 16^th 2008, had taken 12.2 billion years to reach Earth. Hence, it must have been produced at a time when the Universe was just 1.5 billion years old.  The total amount of energy released makes this the most violent explosion observed in the Universe since the Big Bang. Observed by the Fermi on scales covering more than six decades in energy, this gamma-ray burst demonstrated exceptional properties. Clouds of charged particles were catapulted out during the explosion, at a speed equal to 99.9% of the speed of light! This work, the result of the international Fermi collaboration, with partners from CEA-Irfu, was published on February 19^th 2009 in the journal Science express.