Mysterious Source Of High-Energy Cosmic Radiation Discovered: Nearby Exotic Object?

November 20, 2008

Scientists announced Wednesday the discovery of a previously unidentified nearby source of high-energy cosmic rays. The finding was made with a NASA-funded balloon-borne instrument high over Antarctica.

Researchers from the Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) collaboration, led by scientists at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, published the results in the Nov. 20 issue of the journal Nature. The new results show an unexpected surplus of cosmic ray electrons at very high energy — 300-800 billion electron volts — that must come from a previously unidentified source or from the annihilation of very exotic theoretical particles used to explain dark matter.

"This electron excess cannot be explained by the standard model of cosmic ray origin," said John P. Wefel, ATIC project principal investigator and a professor at Louisiana State. "There must be another source relatively near us that is producing these additional particles."

Stratospheric balloon launched on 12/19/2005 from Williams Field, McMurdo Station, Antarctica for ATIC (Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter). (Credit: Louisiana State University)

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Posted in Environmental, Physics, Science and Technology