Scientists in China solve 70-year cosmic ray origin mystery

A group of scientists from China, together with space researchers from other countries, has discovered that the formation of cosmic rays in the Milky Way is influenced by microquasars – systems consisting of a black hole and a companion star. This was reported by Global Times, a partner of TV BRICS.

The new data have shed light on the nature of the energy spectrum of the rays, which had remained unclear for 70 years.

Black holes, some of the most enigmatic objects in the universe, generate jets at speeds close to that of light when they draw in matter from companion stars in binary systems, forming microquasars.

The study has, for the first time, systematically detected ultra-high-energy gamma rays originating from five microquasars. The results indicate that the primary cosmic rays generating these gamma rays may have energies exceeding 1 petaelectronvolt (PeV) or even 10 PeV, surpassing the so-called “knee” region in the energy spectrum of cosmic rays.

The discovery resolves a long-standing problem, as previously known cosmic ray sources could not exceed this threshold, neither observationally nor theoretically.

Further understanding of the phenomenon requires precise measurements of the energy spectra of different types of cosmic rays and their corresponding “knee” regions.

As noted by researchers at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the data already obtained help to better understand extreme physical processes in black hole systems.

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