KIPAC

Louis Strigari (KIPAC) and his colleagues extrapolated from the small number of planet-mass objects that have been detected far from their stars or in interstellar space by direct imaging or by gravitational microlensing.

"Every time there is a new instrument with significantly better sensitivity than any previous instrument, significant discoveries are bound to follow," said SLAC astrophysicist Greg Madejski, who is leading the KIPAC contingent.

Strigari, lead author of the study and research associate at KIPAC and the SLAC.

"Particle acceleration occurring in normal star-forming galaxies is a strong contender," explained Markus Ackermann, another member of the Fermi LAT team at KIPAC who led the measurement study.

"As the universe's biggest accelerators, blazar jets are important to understand," said KIPAC Research Fellow Masaaki Hayashida.

"When I first started in this field, some people were adamant that they understood the contents of the universe quite well," said Sarah Church of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC).