We may have nicely resolved an ultra-high energy cosmic beam puzzle

We reset the true composition of the rarest, highest energy cosmic rays that could help reveal their unknown origin.

The universe is constantly showering us with bursts of particles, says Brian Clark at the University of Maryland. The most energetic among them, called Ultrahøj-Energi cosmic rays, has more energy than even the accelerated particles in colliders. They are also rare – scientists do now what producing them or where they come from. Even the party that makes them up has been unresolved questions. Now Clark and his colleagues have decided their composition using data collection of IceCube Neutrino Detector in Antarctica.

Former Ultrahøj-Energi cosmic beam detection-by-Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina and the Telescopic Stay in Utah-Disagee on what these rays mostly consist of protons, or ifher particles are also in the mixture, says Clark. IceCube’s data offers some resolution: It suggests that protons only account for approx. 70 percent of the ultra-energy cosmic rays, while the rest is made of heavy ions such as iron.

Team Member Maximilian Meier at Chiba University in Japan says Icecube’s data is complementary to other measurements that record cosmic rays directly. In contrast, Icecube primarily detects particles called neutrinos, which are by -products of collisions between energy mosmic rays and photons back from Big Bang. Neutrinos himself is challenging to discover and simulate that we have calculated, he says.

The party in cosmic rays determines how space -borne magnetic fields affect their way through space. Understanding their composition is an important part of the difficult task of searching for their origin, says Toshihiro Fujii at Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan.

The unknown origins have created some dramatic mysteries, such as Amaterasu Particle Cosmic Ray. Oddly enough, it seems to have emerged from a space area near the Milky Way where there is no “no promising astronomical candidates” for its source, he says.

Clark says he is optimistic about solving many such mysteries within a decade, because several new observation instruments, including an ice cube upgrade, will come online in the near future. “The field has a really clear vision for how we get to [answering] Some of these questions, ”he says.