The Earth constantly registers the arrival of cosmic rays, subatomic particles that come from space and enter the planet at an enormous speed, close to that of light. Sometimes these particles arrive in a straight line, like direct shots. Others appear on the sensors as if they were a chaotic rain. They are millions of times more energetic than the particles produced by artificial accelerators on Earth. Understanding their behavior is vital for telecommunications.
Astronomers propose that only extremely violent events, such as supernovae, black holes or neutron stars, can eject particles at that speed. There is evidence to support this idea, such as relativistic jets, gigantic jets of matter shot from the accretion disks of objects like those mentioned.
Although this gives a clear idea about the origin of cosmic rays, science has yet to define what makes the particles gain so much energy when shot through the cosmos. Until now, scientists’ intuition suggested that it is the explosion itself that accelerates them so much (like the flying debris of an exploding bomb), a concept called shock acceleration. However, a recent study by astrophysicist Luca Comisso of Columbia University in the United States proposes that the great energy of cosmic rays arises from the twisting of the magnetic fields of these objects.
Magnetic twisting and ultra-energetic particle shooting
To imagine the phenomenon of magnetic turbulence, it is enough to observe the current situation of the Sun. Throughout 2024, there were significant solar storms that led to the northern lights almost all over the world. The solar wind reached Earth with greater energy due to the end of solar cycle 24. In this natural process, the polarity of the Sun changes and magnetic fields tangle and tighten like rubber bands. Eventually, these magnetic lines reorganize and release the pent-up energy. This produces solar flares, coronal mass ejections and, finally, the ejection of charged particles that can reach the Earth’s atmosphere.
The formation of black holes, supernovae or neutron stars are events much more powerful than any behavior of our Sun. According to the work of Luca Comisso, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, The magnetic twists of these violent phenomena are what provide energy to the particles that travel through space as cosmic rays.
The difference in energy between cosmic rays and charged particles from the Sun is abysmal. Particles coming from black holes or supernovae reach energies measured in teraelectronvolts, while the solar wind is generally measured in kiloelectronvolts. Columbia University compares this difference to putting a grain of rice and the largest passenger plane in the world face to face.
Comisso’s team used particle kinetic simulations to find the type of interaction that matched the observed behavior. “A promising mechanism for accelerating ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is magnetized turbulence. “We demonstrate, from first principles, that magnetically dominated turbulence accelerates particles in a short period of time, producing a power-law energy distribution with a sharply defined stiffness-dependent cutoff,” the report says.
Understanding ultra-high energy particles is critical to the development of technology on Earth. Satellites and ships could be affected if they were suddenly shot from some remote part of space. Luca Comisso has spent the last few years exploring the mechanisms that cause these rays, both in the Sun and now in black holes and neutron stars.
#origin #ultrafast #particles #reach #Earth #form #cosmic #rays #believed
