1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,980 (Music throughout) 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:13,980 This pulsar’s vast gamma-ray halo may explain a key observation about antimatter near Earth. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:20,980 [Big Dipper to scale] 4 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:28,980 Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, the superdense remnants of supernovae explosions. 5 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:39,980 NASA’s Fermi mission has observed one nearby pulsar, Geminga, for more than 10 years. 6 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:49,980 The data are now so detailed that when scientists remove background sources… 7 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:56,980 …Geminga’s faint but huge gamma-ray halo emerges. 8 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:04,980 This halo precisely matches computer models that account for positron production. 9 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:13,980 Positrons are antimatter versions of electrons. They’re found near Earth but have no clear origin. 10 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:24,980 Scientists suspected pulsars to be positron sources. This study confirms it. 11 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:32,980 As it turns out, Geminga is likely the greatest positron source for Earth. 12 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:40,980 It alone could produce 20% of the positrons at an energy of 1 TeV seen in orbit. 13 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:48,980 So pulsars not only shine in the highest-energy light, they also glow in antimatter.