1996A&AS..120C..23F

The Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) has over ten times the sensitivity of earlier high- energy gamma-ray telescopes flown in space. It covers the energy range from about 3x10⁷eV to approximately 3x10¹⁰eV. As anticipated, EGRET has indeed produced exciting and important new results on a broad range of astrophysical topics. Highlights include: (1) the finding of a new class of objects - high energy gamma-ray emitting blazars, (2) the emission of high energy gamma-rays from a gamma ray burst for over an hour, with some gamma rays having energies over a GeV and two having energies over 10GeV, (3) the observation of seven high energy gamma ray pulsars, (4) the determination with high certainty that cosmic rays are galactic, (5) the detailed mapping of the galactic diffuse radiation and the measurement of the pion bump in the high energy gamma-ray energy spectrum, (6) the absence of microsecond bursts and its implication for certain physics unification theories, (7) the long trapping time of over ten hours for energetic solar particles following a flare, and (8) a measurement of the extragalactic diffuse radiation and its consistency with that expected from AGN emission.