Scientists from Osaka Metropolitan University have discovered a new cosmic particle with extremely high energy. She was named “Amaterasu” after the Japanese Sun Goddess. The research was published in the journal Science.
Cosmic rays are streams of charged particles whose source is in space. The extraordinarily rare beams can reach an exaelectronvolt (EeV) energy, nearly a million times greater than that of the most powerful particle accelerators created by humankind. In search of such rays, an international group of scientists has been running the Telescope Array experiment since 2008. This cosmic ray detector consists of 507 ground stations.
On May 27, 2021, within the scope of this project, researchers discovered the “Amaterasu” particle with a huge energy level of 244 EeV. There is a local void in the universe in the direction from which the particle comes. The particle with the highest energy, “Oh My God” (Oh My God), was discovered in 1991, its energy was 320 EeV.
“In the direction from which the cosmic rays came, not a single significant astronomical object was detected, suggesting the possibility of the existence of unknown astronomical events,” say the authors of the discovery.
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