Pulsars may power cosmic rays with the highest-known energies in the universe

Their magnetic environs are perfect for boosting particles to ultrahigh energies




Crab Nebula
Pulsar wind nebulas, such as one in the Crab Nebula (pictured), may be responsible for boosting cosmic rays, specifically electrons, to ultrahigh energies. That boosting process can create gamma rays with the highest energies ever detected. In this composite image, X-rays are blue, visible light is purple and infrared radiation is magenta.

X-RAY: CXC/SAO/NASA; OPTICAL: STSCI/NASA; INFRARED: JPL-CALTECH/NASA

By Liz Kruesi

20 HOURS AGO

The windy and chaotic remains surrounding recently exploded stars may be launching the fastest particles in the universe.

Highly magnetic neutron stars known as pulsars whip up a fast and strong magnetic wind. When charged particles, specifically electrons, get caught in those turbulent conditions, they can be boosted to extreme energies, astrophysicists report April 28 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. What’s more, those zippy electrons can then go on to boost some ambient light to equally extreme energies, possibly creating the very high-energy gamma-ray photons that led astronomers to detect these particle launchers in the first place.

“This is the first step in exploring the connection between the pulsars and the ultrahigh-energy emissions,” says astrophysicist Ke Fang of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not involved in this new work.

Last year, researchers with the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory, or LHAASO, in China announced the discovery of the highest-energy gamma rays ever detected, up to 1.4 quadrillion electron volts (SN: 2/2/21). That’s roughly 100 times as energetic as the highest energies achievable with the world’s premier particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva. Identifying what’s causing these and other extremely high-energy gamma rays could point, literally, to the locations of cosmic rays — the zippy protons, heavier atomic nuclei and electrons that bombard Earth from locales beyond our solar system.

More:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/pulsars-cosmic-rays-high-energy-universe-particles-light