We Finally Know Where The Highest Energy Cosmic Rays Come From: Blazars
The way out in outer space is a class of objects called blazars. Think of them as extreme particle accelerators, capable of accumulating energy a million times more powerful than the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. It turns out that they are the cause of one of the great astrophysical mysteries: what creates and propels neutrinos across the universe at such blazing fast speeds? It turns out that the answer has been there all along: the blazar pumps out neutrinos and cosmic rays. That was the conclusion of a group of astronomers led by Dr. Sara Buson of the Universität Wurzburg in Germany as they study data from a very unique facility on Earth: the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. Understanding the Origin of Speed Demon Particles Neutrinos are quirky little ducks in the astrophysics zoo. They originate from cosmic ray interactions in the blazars and have a very small mass. Neutrinos do not interact with matter as they streak through the cosmos, meaning they tra