An international team of astronomers has discovered that the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy might be the source of mysterious high-energy cosmic rays that bombard the Earth on a daily basis.
The discovery, reported in Nature, brings new answers to one of astronomy’s most longstanding mysteries.
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In 1912 Victor Hess found that the Earth was being bombarded by subatomic particles travelling at tremendous speeds that originated from outer space. He called the particles “cosmic rays.” But the origin of these high energy particles has remained a mystery for more than 100 years.
“How cosmic rays are created and accelerated at very high energies is the big question astronomers are trying to understand,” said Associate Professor Gavin Rowell, an astrophysicist from the University of Adelaide, who was involved in the Nature study.
