Abstract
During close to ten years of highly successful operation, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer ( GRS) on the Solar Maximum Mission ( SMM) made significant celestial measurements, in addition to the discovery and monitoring of 56Co γ-ray lines from SN 1987A. These observations include limits set on a) the amount of 56Ni produced in Type Ia SN 1986G, b) radioactive products of Galactic nucleosynthetic events, including 7Be, 22Na, 44Ti, and 60Co, and c) Galactic emissions at 4.43 and 6.13 MeV from excitation of interstellar C and O by cosmic-ray bombardment. The spectrometer measured the diffuse Galactic spectrum from 0.3 to 8.5 MeV, revealing a power-law continuum, narrow lines at 0.511 and 1.809 MeV, and the positronium continuum below 0.5 MeV. Limits have also been placed on the temporal variability of a Galactic center source of 511 keV radiation. A total of 177 cosmic γ-ray bursts have been observed, 17 detected at energies above 10 MeV.
Published Version
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