NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected gamma-rays from a nova for the first time. The finding stunned observers and theorists alike because it overturns a long-standing notion that novae explosions lack the power for such high-energy emissions. In March, Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected gamma rays -- the most energetic form of light – from the nova for 15 days. Scientists believe that the emission arose as a million-mile-per-hour shock wave raced from the site of the explosion. A nova is a sudden, short-lived brightening of an otherwise inconspicuous star. The outburst occurs when a white dwarf in a binary system erupts in an enormous thermonuclear explosion.
