TOKYO, Oct. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Godzilla and its heat ray have devised as a constellation by NASA and scientists with NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. This was the part of celebration of mission's 10th year of operations.

"The number of different sources mapped by Fermi's LAT had expanded to about 3,000 — 10 times the number known before the mission," said Goddard's Elizabeth Ferrara, who led the constellation project. "For the first time ever, the number of known gamma-ray sources was comparable to the number of visible stars, so we thought a new set of constellations was a great way to illustrate the point." (Generally known 88 constellations such as Orion and Cassiopeia are devised by International Astronomical Union (IAU).)

Godzilla's trademark weapon is its "heat ray," a fiery jet. This bears at least a passing resemblance to gamma-ray jets associated with black holes and neutron stars. When matter falls toward a black hole, vast amounts of energy are released. Gas falling toward the black hole is compressed and heated to millions of degrees and glows brightly near the black hole. Other selected characters include Hulk, the product of a gamma-ray experiment gone awry, and Little Prince, the famous fictional visitor asteroid B 612.

"Of the objects seen by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, many lie outside our own Milky Way galaxy," says Elizabeth Ferrara of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Most of these sources are actually distant galaxies with gigantic black holes at their centers, called Active Galactic Nuclei. These black holes create jets of energetic particles flowing away from the galaxy's center and creating beams of gamma rays. In the Godzilla constellation, the monster's heat ray is a representation of these jets of particles detected by Fermi."

It has been 64 years since Godzilla first appeared in the eponymous film in 1954. The franchise now includes 29 live-action feature films produced by Toho, one ongoing animated trilogy streaming globally on NETFLIX, and one multi-movie series by Legendary and Warner Bros. The latest installment, "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," comes to theaters in 2019. In addition to these audiovisual contents, Toho continues to deliver new and exciting ways to showcase the monster character like the Godzilla exhibition held in Taiwan this Summer. In 2019, Godzilla will celebrate its 65th anniversary, one of the many milestones in its evolving chronicles.

About Toho:
Toho Company, Limited, is a Japanese entertainment studio focused on the development, production, exhibition, and distribution of powerful content for motion pictures, television and theater. Founded in 1932, it remains a prominent force in bringing brands and original storytelling with versatile talents to audiences worldwide. Its subsidiaries include Toho Cinemas, the highest grossing exhibition company in Japan.

SOURCE Toho Company Limited