Illustration of an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray hitting Earth
Osaka Metropolitan University/L-INSIGHT, Kyoto University/Ryuunosuke Takeshige
Astronomers have detected the second strongest cosmic ray ever recorded, but it surely appears to have come from an empty area of the universe generally known as a cosmic void, the place there’s nothing apparent it might have originated from.
This mysterious cosmic ray, which might be a charged particle nucleus of some selection, corresponding to carbon or oxygen, has been dubbed Amaterasu after the Japanese solar goddess.
Possible explanations for it embrace magnetic fields steering the particle off-course, an invisible supply in one other…