Brightest cosmic light detected on Tibetan Plateau may help rewrite laws of physics
- Lhaaso cosmic ray detector detects more than a dozen sources of ‘oh-my-God’ particles
- Detection of the photons, from a constellation in the Milky Way, could help dispel scepticism over their still unexplained existence
The light particle – or photon – carried an unprecedented amount of energy, at 1.4 peta-electron volts (PeV) – 700 trillion times stronger than can be seen by the human eye, according to a paper by Chinese physicists published in the journal Nature on Monday.
The photon was emitted by an even more powerful particle, with 10 times as much energy, from a “hell-like” constellation in the Milky Way, about 1,470 light years from Earth.
Cosmic ray particles with 1 PeV or more energy are also known as oh-my-God particles, not only because they carry an incredible amount of energy but because, according to the theory of physics, they should not exist at all.
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Cao Zhen, lead scientist of the study by China’s Institute of High Energy Physics, said the experiment had discovered in less than a year a dozen cosmic ray accelerators, or pevatrons, that were steadily throwing out these impossible particles.