A high-energy particle fell from space and hit the Earth’s surface, but its origin and exact nature are unknown. This may sound like science fiction, but it’s a real scientific discovery, according to research led by Associate Professor Toshihiro Fujii of Osaka Metropolitan University’s Faculty of Science and Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics.

Cosmic rays are charged, energetic particles that come from galactic and extragalactic sources in space. Extremely high-energy cosmic rays are exceptionally rare; they can have over 1018 electronvolts of energy or an exa-electronvolt (EeV), which is about a million times more powerful than the most powerful particle accelerators ever built by humans.

Since 2008, Professor Fujii and an international team of scientists have been operating the Telescope Array experiment to track these rays in space. This specialized cosmic ray detector consists of 507 surface detector stations covering a huge detection area of 700 square kilometers in Utah. On May 27, 2021, the researchers detected a particle with an energy level of 244 EeV.

When Fujii first discovered this ultra-high-energy cosmic ray, he thought it must be an error because its unprecedented energy level had not been seen in over 30 years, he said.

Artist’s illustration of the extremely energetic cosmic ray observed by a surface detector array of the Telescope Array experiment, named “Amaterasu particle.” | Image: Osaka Metropolitan University/Kyoto University/Ryuunosuke Takeshige

This energy level matches the most energetic cosmic ray ever observed, nicknamed the “Oh-My-God particle”, which was estimated to have an energy of 320 EeV when detected in 1991.

From many candidates, Professor Fujii and his colleagues chose to name the particle “Amaterasu”, after the Shinto sun goddess who legend says played a key role in Japan’s creation.

Particle Amaterasu may be as mysterious as the Japanese goddess herself. Where did it come from? What was it exactly? These questions remain unanswered. They hope Amaterasu will help reveal the origins of cosmic rays.

No promising astronomical object has been identified in the direction particle Amaterasu came from, suggesting unknown astronomical phenomena and new physical origins beyond the Standard Model, Fujii reflects.

In the future, they are committed to continuing the Telescope Array experiment, and embarking through their upgraded TAx4 experiment with quadruple sensitivities, and next-generation observatories, on more detailed investigation of this extremely energetic particle’s source.

Sources

Osaka Metropolitan University | Telescope Array, An extremely energetic cosmic ray observed by a surface detector array, Science (2023). DOI:10.1126/science.abo5095

  • Share this article:

Discover more from LBV Magazine English Edition

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

The International Space Station in May 2010
Antimatter Detected on the International Space Station Reveals Unknown Physics The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02), a particle detector aboard the International Space Station, has identified particles of antimatter (antihelium) that are not easily produced in the known universe. This discovery…
This concept art depicts a magnetar losing material into space in an ejection that would have caused its rotation to slow down. The strong, twisted magnetic field lines of the magnetar (in green) may influence the flow of electrically charged material from the object, which is a type of neutron star
NASA Telescopes Find New Clues to Mysterious Deep Space Signals Two NASA X-ray telescopes recently observed one of these phenomena - known as a fast radio burst (FRB) - just minutes before and after it occurred. This unprecedented observation is…
A study questions the existence of dark matter
Scientists Claim Our Universe does not Contain Dark Matter In a new study, researchers from the University of Ottawa have questioned the current theoretical model of the universe's composition, which suggests that it is made up of "normal matter",…
For a brief period of time millions of years ago, Earth may have been plunged out of the sun’s protective plasma shield, called the heliosphere, which is depicted here as the dark gray bubble over the backdrop of interstellar space. According to new research, this could have exposed Earth to high levels of radiation and influenced the climate
An Encounter 2 Million Years Ago with “Something Outside the Solar System" May have Triggered an Ice Age on Earth Millions of years ago, Earth might have temporarily moved out of the sun's protective shield, known as the heliosphere. This shield, depicted as a dark gray bubble against the backdrop…
Moving one step closer to understanding mysteries at the edge of the universe
Cosmic "Glitch" Discovered in Universal Gravity A discovery from researchers at the University of Waterloo and the University of British Columbia has revealed what they describe as a "cosmic glitch" in the universe's gravity. This unexpected…
Visualization of the Milky Way, with the stars that Khyati Malhan and Hans-Walter Rix identified in the Gaia DR3 data set as belonging to Shiva and Shakti shown as colored dots. Shiva stars appear in green and Shakti stars in pink. The complete absence of green and pink markers in some regions does not mean that there are no Shiva or Shakti stars there, as the data set used for this study only covers specific regions within our galaxy
Astronomers Identify Two of the First Cosmic Structures that Came Together to Create the Milky Way: Shakti and Shiva Our home, the Milky Way galaxy, has a long and fascinating history. It wasn't always the grand, spiral structure we see today. Instead, it was built up over billions of…

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Follow LBV Magazine on Google News