Two cosmic

The Los Alamos National Laboratory observatory observes for the first time that two distinct hotspots seem to be bombarding the Earth with an enormous amount of cosmic rays. The study raises questions about the century-old understanding of the galactic magnetic field near our solar system.

Establishing a group of international collaborators, researchers at Los Alamos Laboratories include Brenda Dingus, Gus Sinnis, Gary Walker, Petra Hüntemeyer and John Pretz, who published the findings on November 25. Physical Review Letters.

Pretz said: 'The source of cosmic rays is a 100-year-old problem of celestial physicists. These cosmic ray regions are quite small holes in the cosmic ray background, which is why they have not been detected for a long time. The discovery of hot spots raises questions about our understanding of cosmic rays, and raises the possibility that there is a mysterious resource or magnetic field effect near our solar system. cause of the observed phenomenon '.

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles that travel through the galaxy from many sources located far away. No one knows exactly where the cosmic rays come from, but scientists hypothesize that they could originate from supernova - giant stars that explode - or metaphors or perhaps from Unrecognized strange sources, little known in the universe.

Scientists used the Milagro observatory of Los Alamos to search the northern hemisphere sky over the past 7 years since June 2000. The observatory is unique because it controls the whole sky is in the northern hemisphere. Thanks to superior design and market, Milagro observatory can record 200 billion times of cosmic rays colliding with the Earth's atmosphere.

The international team of researchers, using Milagro observatory of Los Alamos National Laboratory, discovered for the first time two distinct hot spots that seemed to bombard the Earth with an enormous amount of cosmic rays. The two hotspots are two red areas near the Orion constellation. (Photo: courtesy John Pretz, P-23)

Dingus said: 'Our observatory is very unique because we are able to detect events with a sufficiently low energy level to capture cosmic ray collisions, thereby seeing the origin of the born from two distinct regions in the sky '.

Because cosmic rays are charged elements, the magnetic field of our Milky Way and our solar system has transformed the pathways of the elements so that researchers cannot determine their exact origin. . As a result, people have long believed that cosmic rays appear evenly across the sky.

But because the Milagro observatory can record a lot of cosmic ray collision events, the researchers were able to determine for the first time the number of cosmic ray collisions from specific regions. sky near the constellation Orion. The region with the largest hot spot is the dense eye at the top right of the constellation Orion, near the constellation Taurus. The second hot spot is a comma-shaped area visible near the Gemini constellation.

The researchers described the two hotspots graphically, which are like two cosmic "rashes" on the star background.

Milagro scientists are currently collaborating with researchers in Mexico to build a second-generation observatory named High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) experiment. When completed, the HAWC observatory can help researchers solve the mystery of cosmic ray origin.

In addition to the research team at the observatory Milagro Los Alamos, the collaboration team includes about 30 researchers from the following research institutes: Naval Research Observatory, University of California-Santa Cruz, University of Maryland, Greater California-Irvine, George Mason University, New York University, Institute of Astronomy, National University of Nacionál Autonoma de Mexico, Michigan State University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and New Hampshire University.

The research was funded by the Department of High Energy Physics and the Department of Nuclear Physics - US Department of Energy, Laboratory-Oriented Development and Research Fund of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Planetary Physics Institute and geophysics in the laboratory and the National Science Foundation.