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. 2008 Jun 27;320(5884):1752-4.
doi: 10.1126/science.1157087.

Very-high-energy gamma rays from a distant quasar: how transparent is the universe?

MAGIC Collaboration  1 ; J Albert, E Aliu, H Anderhub, L A Antonelli, P Antoranz, M Backes, C Baixeras, J A Barrio, H Bartko, D Bastieri, J K Becker, W Bednarek, K Berger, E Bernardini, C Bigongiari, A Biland, R K Bock, G Bonnoli, P Bordas, V Bosch-Ramon, T Bretz, I Britvitch, M Camara, E Carmona, A Chilingarian, S Commichau, J L Contreras, J Cortina, M T Costado, S Covino, V Curtef, F Dazzi, A De Angelis, E De Cea Del Pozo, R de Los Reyes, B De Lotto, M De Maria, F De Sabata, C Delgado Mendez, A Dominguez, D Dorner, M Doro, M Errando, M Fagiolini, D Ferenc, E Fernández, R Firpo, M V Fonseca, L Font, N Galante, R J García López, M Garczarczyk, M Gaug, F Goebel, M Hayashida, A Herrero, D Höhne, J Hose, C C Hsu, S Huber, T Jogler, T M Kneiske, D Kranich, A La Barbera, A Laille, E Leonardo, E Lindfors, S Lombardi, F Longo, M López, E Lorenz, P Majumdar, G Maneva, N Mankuzhiyil, K Mannheim, L Maraschi, M Mariotti, M Martínez, D Mazin, M Meucci, M Meyer, J M Miranda, R Mirzoyan, S Mizobuchi, M Moles, A Moralejo, D Nieto, K Nilsson, J Ninkovic, N Otte, I Oya, M Panniello, R Paoletti, J M Paredes, M Pasanen, D Pascoli, F Pauss, R G Pegna, M A Perez-Torres, M Persic, L Peruzzo, A Piccioli, F Prada, E Prandini, N Puchades, A Raymers, W Rhode, M Ribó, J Rico, M Rissi, A Robert, S Rügamer, A Saggion, T Y Saito, M Salvati, M Sanchez-Conde, P Sartori, K Satalecka, V Scalzotto, V Scapin, R Schmitt, T Schweizer, M Shayduk, K Shinozaki, S N Shore, N Sidro, A Sierpowska-Bartosik, A Sillanpää, D Sobczynska, F Spanier, A Stamerra, L S Stark, L Takalo, F Tavecchio, P Temnikov, D Tescaro, M Teshima, M Tluczykont, D F Torres, N Turini, H Vankov, A Venturini, V Vitale, R M Wagner, W Wittek, V Zabalza, F Zandanel, R Zanin, J Zapatero
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Free article

Very-high-energy gamma rays from a distant quasar: how transparent is the universe?

MAGIC Collaboration et al. Science. .
Free article

Abstract

The atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray telescope MAGIC, designed for a low-energy threshold, has detected very-high-energy gamma rays from a giant flare of the distant Quasi-Stellar Radio Source (in short: radio quasar) 3C 279, at a distance of more than 5 billion light-years (a redshift of 0.536). No quasar has been observed previously in very-high-energy gamma radiation, and this is also the most distant object detected emitting gamma rays above 50 gigaelectron volts. Because high-energy gamma rays may be stopped by interacting with the diffuse background light in the universe, the observations by MAGIC imply a low amount for such light, consistent with that known from galaxy counts.

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