GLAST Renamed to Honor Fermi

What's in a name, right?

NASA has renamed the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) to Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. So that makes it FGST? FGRST? FERGARASPT?

The Fermi spacecraft -- launched June 11 -- has begun its mission of exploring the universe in high-energy gamma rays, with the spacecraft and its revolutionary instruments passing their orbital checkout "with flying colors," NASA said.

"Enrico Fermi was the first person to suggest how cosmic particles could be accelerated to high speeds," said Paul Hertz, chief scientist for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "His theory provides the foundation for understanding the new phenomena his namesake telescope will discover."

Just don't name it for Pluto. It might get demoted to a "Observatoroid".

More on what this observatory can and will do can be found here.

Zz.