Brightest-ever ‘blazar’ flare from distant galaxy spotted by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

A galaxy located billions of light-years away is commanding the attention of NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and astronomers around the globe. Thanks to a series of flares that began September 15, the galaxy is now the brightest source in the gamma-ray sky — more than ten times brighter than it was in the summer.