Discovery of a mysterious source of high energy cosmic radiation

Scientists have discovered an unidentified source of high-energy cosmic rays bombarding Earth from space. Researchers from the Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) collaboration, led by scientists at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, published the results in the November 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 very close to the Solar System or from the annihilation of exotic theoretical particles used to explain dark matter.


"This is a big discovery," says John Wefel of Louisiana State University and Principal Investigator for ATIC, Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter, a NASA funded balloon-borne instrument high over Antarctica. "It's the first time we've seen a discrete source of accelerated cosmic rays standing out from the general galactic background." Read the rest of the news here or from here.