For decades, scientists have been trying to solve a mystery: Where do high-energy cosmic rays come from? These charged particles travel from outer space to Earth, but their origins remain unknown. Now, a major discovery by Chinese scientists is bringing them closer to the answer.<\/p>\n
Based on observations from China\u2019s Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), researchers have detected ultra-high-energy gamma rays from a special type of object in the Milky Way. This object is a gamma-ray binary system, meaning it consists of two stars: one massive star and one compact object. The compact object could be either a neutron star or a black hole.<\/p>\n
The energy of the gamma rays detected by the team is extremely high, reaching over 100 trillion electron-volts. This is far beyond what scientists had seen from this object before.<\/p>\n
The new discovery, recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters, was led by scientists from the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n
According to the study, in such binary systems, the strong magnetic field around the compact object usually causes high-energy electrons to lose energy rapidly. That makes it hard for them to reach extremely high energy levels. However, the detection of gamma rays above 100 trillion electron-volts suggests that something else is happening.<\/p>\n
According to the research team, high-energy protons are likely being accelerated in the system during certain orbital phases. These protons then crash into the dense wind coming from the massive star, producing the ultra-high-energy gamma rays.<\/p>\n
This discovery provides strong evidence that this type of gamma-ray binary system is a potential PeVatron. A PeVatron is a natural particle accelerator in space that can push cosmic rays up to energies of one thousand trillion electron-volts. That is a hundred times higher than what the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful human-made particle accelerator on Earth, can achieve.<\/p>\n
The researchers also found that the brightness of the gamma rays changes with the system\u2019s orbital period, which is about 26.5 days. This pattern shows a clear dependence on energy, indicating that the physical processes within the system are complex and change as the two stars orbit each other.<\/p>\n
This discovery is not just about one binary system. It opens a new window for understanding how the universe works on its most extreme scale, said He Huihai, a researcher from the IHEP.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also prepares the ground for future multi-messenger astronomy, in which scientists study the universe using not only light but also other signals such as cosmic rays and neutrinos,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
LHAASO, located at an altitude of 4,410 meters on Mount Haizi in Daocheng County, southwest China\u2019s Sichuan Province, is China\u2019s national key scientific and technological infrastructure focusing on cosmic ray research.<\/p>\n
The observatory, the most sensitive ultra-high-energy gamma-ray detection device in the world, was completed in July 2021 and began operating stably and with high quality thereafter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, scientists have been trying to solve a mystery: Where do high-energy cosmic rays come from? These…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,95,165111,66],"class_list":["post-660287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-mna","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}