[ad_1]
Researchers have detected one of many highest-energy particles ever falling to Earth. Cosmic rays are high-energy particles that come from sources in area such because the solar, however this latest detection is extra highly effective than something that may be defined by identified sources in our galaxy and even past. The particle had an vitality of two.4 x 1020eV, which is tens of millions of instances the vitality of the particles produced in a particle collider.
The detection was made in Could 2021 utilizing a facility referred to as the Telescope Array, situated close to Salt Lake Metropolis in Utah. It has 500 floor detectors that are unfold over 300 sq. miles of desert, designed to detect cosmic ray occasions. It has noticed greater than 30 ultra-high-energy cosmic rays since 2007, however this was probably the most highly effective one detected up to now.
It’s the second strongest cosmic ray ever detected, solely crushed out by one detected in 1991 which was named the Oh-My-God particle. The unusual factor about these occasions is that the researchers do not know the place they’re coming from.
[cc-link url=”https://www.walmart.com/shop/deals/flash-deals” merchant=”5d1aafe0714ede0011f8cac3″ type=”deals-compact” title=”Walmart Black Friday Sale” cta=”See All Deals” image_url=”https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/ccp-prd-s3-uploads/2023/11/18/6f0d8d9dc54c0a6a0f78d753e0ec81be5c841ef4.jpeg” subcopy=”Plenty of cheap TVs, laptops, as well as Lego sets, kitchen essentials like air fryers, and a deal on the new PS5 ‘Slim’.”]
“The particles are so excessive vitality, they shouldn’t be affected by galactic and extra-galactic magnetic fields. You need to be capable of level to the place they arrive from within the sky,” mentioned one of many researchers, John Matthews of the College of Utah, in a assertion. “However within the case of the Oh-My-God particle and this new particle, you hint its trajectory to its supply and there’s nothing excessive vitality sufficient to have produced it. That’s the thriller of this—what the heck is happening?”
Even a giant occasion like a supernova could be nowhere close to highly effective sufficient to supply particles like this, and the particle appeared to come back from an empty space of area on the sting of the Milky Manner referred to as the Native Void. “These occasions appear to be they’re coming from fully completely different locations within the sky. It’s not like there’s one mysterious supply,” mentioned one other of the researchers, John Belz. “It may very well be defects within the construction of spacetime, colliding cosmic strings. I imply, I’m simply spit-balling loopy concepts that persons are developing with as a result of there’s not a standard clarification.”
The researchers hope to make use of upcoming services like an enlargement to the Telescope Array to search out and examine extra of those occasions and find out about their doable supply. “It’s an actual thriller,” mentioned Belz.
The analysis is printed within the journal Science.
Editors’ Suggestions
[ad_2]
