The GLAST LAT has a very wide field of view and greatly improved sensitivity compared to EGRET, especially at higher gamma-ray energies. It will also provide very accurate positions for the gamma-ray sources that it detects. During the one year all-sky survey, GLAST is expected to detect and provide accurate positions for thousands of new gamma-ray sources, ranging from active galaxies to supernova remnants and pulsars. It will also have the sensitivity to determine whether or not the extragalactic gamma-ray background is truly diffuse. Follow-up observations through the Guest Investigator Program will facilitate studies of many individual gamma-ray emitters, and will include many multi-wavelength campaigns.
The GBM comprises two sets of detectors which will cover an energy range from 5 keV to about 30 MeV, and provide burst triggers and locations over a field of view that is greater than two thirds of the sky. Together the LAT and GBM provide coverage of the broadest energy range ever achieved on a single spacecraft. Observations of gamma-ray bursts over such a large energy range should help to resolve some of the remaining questions regarding the origin and energy production mechanisms in these mysterious and powerful events.