NASA's Fermi Mission Shows How Luck Favors the Prepared

In 2017, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope played a pivotal role in two important breakthroughs occurring just five weeks apart. But what might seem like extraordinary good luck is really the product of research, analysis, preparation and development extending back more than a century. This video timeline explores the historical progress of research into three cosmic messengers -- gravitational waves, gamma rays and neutrinos -- that Fermi helped bring together.

Music: "Family Tree," "The Archives" and "Beyond Truth" from Killer Tracks.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center