Scientists Solve Cosmic Mystery
A 90-year-old astronomical mystery - the source of high-energy cosmic rays - may have been resolved, it was claimed yesterday.
Cosmic radiation was discovered in 1912 from an unmanned high-altitude balloon flight, but to this day, scientists still argue about where the rays come from.
The radiation is now known to consist of fast-moving particles which strike the upper levels of the Earths atmosphere.
Most come from sources within our galaxy, the Milky Way, but those with the very highest energies are generally thought to originate outside.
No-one knows what produces them, however. The common view is they are emitted by exotic sources, such as the decay of unseen "dark" matter.
A team of physicists, led by Sir Arnold Wolfendale, at Durham University is challenging that view.
Sir Arnolds research suggests that high-energy cosmic rays may be produced by a much more common source. This could either be an exploding massive star, or supernova, or a pulsar - the rotating ultra-dense core of a dead collapsed star.
The discovery, reported in the New Journal of Physics, was made using a computer model which showed that these sources could generate the highest-energy particles.
It was simply by chance that such events had not occurred recently within the Milky Way.
Sir Arnold said: "It is important to know where the sources of these high-energy particles come from, because many of the atoms in our bodies and in the world around us were produced in the fiery furnaces of supernovae."
Story originally published by:
The Scotsman / Edinburgh | John Innes - Nov 12.01
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