❌

Reading view

Do Galaxies Really Glow in Sync — or Are We Just Tilting Our Heads?

NGC 1068

Editor’s Note: Astrobites is a graduate-student-run organization that digests astrophysical literature for undergraduate students. As part of the partnership between the AAS and astrobites, we occasionally repost astrobites content here at AAS Nova. We hope you enjoy this post from astrobites; the original can be viewed at astrobites.org.

Title: Geometry, Not Calorimetry, Drives the Radio–Infrared–γ Ray Correlation
Authors: T. A. Porter, I. V. Moskalenko, and G. Jóhannesson
First Author’s Institution: Stanford University
Status: Published in ApJ

Galaxies emit light not only in the visible band, but also across other wavelengths via different physical mechanisms. Finding correlations between emissions at different wavelengths is a powerful tool for astrophysicists to explore the underlying mechanisms of galaxy formation. One of the most famous examples is the infrared–radio continuum correlation, which holds across several orders of magnitude in luminosity.

The typical explanation for this correlation is that both infrared light and radio synchrotron emission share the same energetic origin: star formation. Young stars emit ultraviolet radiation, which is absorbed by interstellar dust and re-radiated in the infrared. When these stars end their lives in core-collapse supernovae, the resulting shock waves accelerate cosmic-ray electrons, which then interact with the magnetic field to produce synchrotron emission.

For this correlation to hold, cosmic-ray electrons must radiate away all their energy within the galaxy, unable to escape and carry away some of their energy. Otherwise, the amount of radio emission would depend on how quickly cosmic rays escape and would no longer correlate with the infrared emission. This assumption is called the “electron calorimeter” model, which assumes that electrons lose all their energy due to radiation without escaping the galaxy. However, observations show that the infrared–radio correlation persists even in low-density galaxies where cosmic rays can easily escape, suggesting that the calorimeter model may not be the full story. To reconcile this, previous studies proposed “conspiracy-like” scenarios in which cosmic-ray injection, transport, magnetic-field amplification, and gas density are all coupled in a finely self-regulating way to maintain the correlation across diverse galactic environments — a somewhat awkward explanation that requires multiple unrelated physical processes to conveniently work together.

With the increased sensitivity of the Fermi Large Area Telescope, high-energy gamma-ray (or γ-ray) detections add new information to this picture. A galaxy’s γ-ray emission is produced by two different sources: cosmic-ray protons interacting with the interstellar medium gas, and cosmic-ray electrons inverse-Compton scattering off of nearby starlight or photons from the cosmic microwave background. Since both processes involve cosmic rays, the total γ-ray emission should also reflect the amount of star formation and therefore correlate with infrared and radio emission.

Because all three wavelengths trace different pieces of the same cosmic-ray population, studying them together reveals how the galaxy’s total cosmic-ray energy budget is distributed across its multi-wavelength emission.

The infrared–radio correlation has been established not only at the scale of entire galaxies, but also locally, down to patches roughly 100 parsecs across. Think of it like the relationship between a city’s electricity consumption and its population: we have long known they track each other city-wide, but it turns out the same relationship holds block by block. The infrared–radio correlation works the same way: zoom into any 100-pc region within a galaxy, and the correlation is still there. Unfortunately, the resolution of γ-ray observations is still stuck at around the kiloparsec scale. It is therefore unclear whether the local infrared–radio correlation reflects a genuine local physical coupling, one that would extend to γ-rays if we had sufficient resolution, or whether it is simply a spatial average of the emission, smoothed out by insufficient resolution. The answer determines whether radio and γ-ray emission can be used as reliable tracers of star formation, or whether they are just smeared out by cosmic-ray propagation over kiloparsec scales.

In this study, the authors numerically model galactic cosmic-ray transport, building a suite of physically motivated three-dimensional models of the Milky Way. They consider two variants for each of the four key inputs: 1) the cosmic-ray source distribution, 2) the interstellar gas, 3) the amount of starlight within the galaxy (the interstellar radiation field), and 4) the galactic magnetic field. Crucially, every model is normalized to reproduce the locally observed cosmic-ray data to within 5%, so that any differences in the predicted emission come purely from the large-scale geometry of each input, rather than from variations in the total cosmic-ray budget.

After evolving cosmic-ray transport for these realistic models, the authors then compute synthetic observations at radio, infrared, and γ-ray bands from various viewing inclinations to investigate how the underlying galactic model and the viewing angle affect the correlations between these emissions.

Surprisingly, inclination plays the most important role — more so than the cosmic-ray source distribution, the radiation field, or the magnetic field. Figure 1 shows the correlation plots between the radio and γ-ray emission (left two columns) and between infrared and γ-ray emission (right two columns) when viewing the galaxy face-on (i.e., viewing the galaxy from directly above the disk). Different colors represent γ-ray emission components from different physical mechanisms, with orange showing the total γ-ray emission. For both sets of correlation plots, starting from the upper-left panel, each panel modifies one physical input and recomputes the emission. Although there is some variation, one can see that the γ-ray emission correlates with both the radio and the infrared emission over several orders of magnitude, regardless of the underlying input model.

plots of radio and infrared flux versus gamma-ray intensity

Figure 1: Radio (left two columns) and infrared (right two columns) vs. γ-ray correlation plots for a galaxy viewed face-on from 50 kpc. Each panel modifies one input — the cosmic-ray source distribution, gas, radiation field within the galaxy, or magnetic field — relative to a baseline model. Colors indicate γ-ray production mechanisms (green: proton–gas; black: inverse-Compton; orange: total). Across all variations, both the radio–γ-ray and infrared–γ-ray correlations remain quasi-linear over several orders of magnitude, showing that the correlations are robust to the choice of underlying galactic model. [Adapted from Porter et al. 2026]

In contrast, Figure 2 shows the correlation plot between radio and γ-ray emission (upper panels) and between infrared and γ-ray emission (lower panels) when viewing the galaxy edge-on (viewing the disk from the side). The radio–γ-ray correlation is preserved, while the infrared–γ-ray correlation is no longer observed. This is because, at this inclination, geometric projection separates the emission components. Infrared-emitting dust and γ-ray emission from cosmic ray–interstellar medium interactions are confined to the disk, while synchrotron radio emission and γ-ray emission from inverse-Compton scattering extend to larger distances above and below the disk. As a result, in an edge-on view, a sight line passing through the disk sees strong infrared emission, while a sight line that misses the disk sees zero infrared but still some γ-ray emission, breaking the infrared–γ-ray correlation. On the other hand, because radio emission is more extended than infrared emission, sight lines that miss the disk can still see both radio and γ-ray emission together, preserving the radio–γ-ray correlation.
relationships between infrared, radio, and gamma-ray flux for two types of galaxy models

Figure 2: Correlation plots for two galaxy models viewed edge-on from 50 kpc — simple axisymmetric (left) and complex with spiral arms (right). Top: radio vs. γ-ray; bottom: infrared vs. γ-ray. Colors indicate γ-ray production mechanisms (green: proton–gas; black: inverse-Compton; orange: total). The infrared–γ-ray correlation breaks down, while the radio–γ-ray correlation is broadened but partially preserved. [Porter et al. 2026]

However, there is one situation where the edge-on correlation comes back: when the observer is far enough away that the image becomes too blurry to resolve the galaxy’s internal structure. Figure 3 shows the same galaxy model viewed from 500 kpc, roughly the distance to Messier 31, our nearest large neighbor. At this distance, a single pixel in the image covers about 1 kpc, large enough for everything along the line of sight. The messy, broken-up pattern seen in the closer 50 kpc edge-on view (lower-right panel of Fig. 2) disappears, and a tight, nearly linear correlation comes back. This explains why nearly all distant, unresolved galaxies show tight radio–infrared–γ-ray correlations: the tightness is simply what you get when you blur everything together, not evidence that cosmic rays are actually losing all their energy locally inside those galaxies.
relationships between infrared, radio, and gamma-ray flux for simulated galaxies viewed from 500 kiloparsecs

Figure 3: Correlation plots from a complex galaxy model viewed from 500 kpc, at three different inclinations (face-on, 45°, edge-on). Top row: radio vs. γ-ray; bottom row: infrared vs. γ-ray. Colors indicate different γ-ray production mechanisms (green: proton–gas; black: inverse-Compton; orange: total). At this distance, the blurring effect of large pixels restores a tight correlation even in the edge-on view. [Porter et al. 2026]

Now we have a consistent picture of the radio–infrared–γ-ray correlation: the authors conclude that this correlation is not a direct signature of cosmic-ray calorimetry, but a geometric projection effect. In face-on systems, a single sight line integrates emission from both the disk and off-disk regions, naturally producing a linear correlation, even when cosmic rays do not lose all their energy locally to radiation (i.e., local calorimetry is absent). In edge-on systems, the correlation breaks down because geometric stratification separates the different emission components. The practical implication is significant: for unresolved galaxies, the tightness of the global correlation alone cannot be used as evidence for cosmic-ray calorimetry, and the physically meaningful information about cosmic-ray transport and escape efficiency is encoded in the scatter around the mean trend, not in the correlation itself.

Original astrobite edited by Kelsie Taylor.

About the author, Sandy Chiu:

I’m a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. I’m interested in numerical simulations of cosmic rays feedback in galaxies and their comparison with observation.

The post Do Galaxies Really Glow in Sync — or Are We Just Tilting Our Heads? appeared first on AAS Nova.

  •  

Nicola Tesla and Zero Point Energy | Free Energy Harvested from the Quantum Vacuum

Any claims related to “free energy” and “zero-point energy” developed by Nikola Tesla are a misconception of his actual work on "radiant" and "cosmic" energy. Tesla's patents cannot be retroactively linked to modern concepts of quantum physics which largely developed after his death.

  •  

NASA’s Fermi Mission Uncovers Possible Sibling Supernova Remnants

6 min read

NASA’s Fermi Mission Uncovers Possible Sibling Supernova Remnants

A new study of two supernova remnants, the debris left behind after stars explode, suggests the explosions came from stellar siblings that once orbited each other. The first star’s detonation sent its binary companion hurtling through space, and then, after traveling for thousands of years, the surviving star blew up too.

Infrared, visible, and ultraviolet image of the area around the Jellyfish Nebula
This multiwavelength scene shows the Jellyfish Nebula supernova remnant (right), the interstellar cloud it’s interacting with, and a distinctive curving filament to its upper left. The filament, which is shown here both in optical and ultraviolet (UV) light, is the visible part of an overlapping supernova remnant, G189.6+3.3, that is more prominent in radio and X-rays. Visible light is shown in yellow, UV from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is shown in violet, and infrared light from NASA’s retired WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) mission appears in cyan, red, and orange. Both remnants are located about 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. The brilliant star at far right is Propus, also known as Eta Geminorum.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Michailidis et al. 2026; optical: DSS; infrared: NASA/WISE/JPL-Caltech/UCLA; ultraviolet: NASA/Swift

“Using 16 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, our analysis uncovered gamma rays associated with a supernova remnant that was hidden in the glare of its neighbor, the Jellyfish Nebula, one of the brightest gamma-ray-emitting supernova remnants known,” said Miltiadis Michailidis, a postdoctoral fellow in the physics department at Stanford University in California. “There are so many striking connections between the two remnants that we conclude they’re likely related, giving us the first known example of a binary system where both stars have undergone supernova explosions.”

Michailidis presented the findings Wednesday at the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California. A paper describing the results will appear in a future edition of Nature Communications.

The study focused on a faint supernova remnant called G189.6+3.3, which is mainly visible in X-rays. It is upstaged by its brighter and better-known neighbor, the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443). The two star wrecks, both located in the constellation Gemini, appear to partially overlap as seen in X-rays. Recent X-ray evidence suggests that hot plasma likely associated with G189.6+3.3 may extend across the entire region, a hint that the overlap may be nearly total.

A massive star explodes when its energy-producing core runs out of fuel and collapses under its own weight, triggering an explosion that blows the star apart. The explosion’s shock wave encloses a hot cloud of debris that rapidly expands into space. So far, astronomers have cataloged about 300 supernova remnants in our galaxy.  

The Fermi mission is part of NASA’s fleet of observatories monitoring the changing cosmos to help humanity better understand how the universe works. More than a decade ago, observations from Fermi’s LAT (Large Area Telescope) showed that the shock waves of supernova remnants accelerated particles to within a fraction of the speed of light, a process first proposed by physicist Enrico Fermi — the mission’s namesake — in 1949.

These high-speed particles, called cosmic rays, interact with interstellar gas to produce gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. Protons make up 99% of cosmic ray particles. To prove that accelerated protons are responsible for the glow, astronomers search for a specific gamma-ray feature. When cosmic-ray protons smash into interstellar gas, they produce a short-lived particle called a neutral pion, which almost immediately decays into a pair of gamma rays. This emission occurs within a specific band of energies associated with the neutral pion’s mass and lies within the range detected by Fermi’s LAT instrument.

In 2013, Fermi observations proved that the Jellyfish Nebula, which is interacting with part of a glowing cloud of hydrogen gas known as Sharpless 249, produced gamma rays through this mechanism. Its neighbor, G189.6+3.3, was discovered in 1994 as part of an X-ray survey by the German-led ROSAT (Roentgen Satellite) mission.

A bright filament of gas lies between the overlapping remnants. New observations of this feature reveal that the shock wave from G189.6+3.3 slammed into dense interstellar gas there and dramatically slowed, key evidence that both remnants are interacting with the same cloud system.

Multiwavelength composite showing high-energy light from the G189 supernova remnant
The well-known supernova remnant IC 443 (right) has an older, fainter neighbor (shown here in blue-green and magenta) called G189.6+3.3. A filament of gas between them, glowing in visible and ultraviolet light (violet arc at center), traces the neighbor’s shock wave and shows that both remnants are interacting with the same molecular cloud, shown in red, orange, brown for infrared and radio data and yellow for visible light. Blue-green shows X-rays from the fainter remnant, while magenta shows gamma rays with energies greater than 10 billion electron volts; for comparison, visible light has energies between about 2 and 3 electron volts. In this view, high-energy light from the much brighter IC 443 has been removed for clarity. Gamma-ray emission near the filament stems from protons accelerated in the supernova’s shock wave as it expands into the cloud.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Michailidis et al. 2026; radio, MWISP and ESA/Planck; infrared: NASA/WISE/JPL-Caltech/UCLA; optical: DSS; ultraviolet: NASA/Swift; X-ray: SRG/eROSITA; gamma ray: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Astronomers think the Jellyfish Nebula is also a candidate PeVatron, a cosmic particle accelerator capable of boosting protons to energies so high they could nearly escape our galaxy. Such particles can produce gamma rays with trillions of times more energy than visible light. Finding a second particle accelerator near the Jellyfish Nebula could offer scientists new clues for how supernova remnants develop into PeVatrons.

“The overlapping remnants, a connecting gas filament, and the availability of data from Fermi and other facilities motivated us to delve into this complex but little-studied region,” said co-author Marianne Lemoine-Goumard, an astrophysicist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) based at the University of Bordeaux. “With Fermi’s LAT instrument, we found gamma-ray emission associated with accelerated protons in the northern part of the fainter remnant. If both remnants are interacting with the same structure, then they must share a common distance from us.”

The team concludes the remnants lie about 6,000 light-years away, their explosion centers are separated by roughly 40 light-years projected onto the plane of the sky, and the original stars may have been 20 or more times the Sun’s mass.

Estimates of the remnants’ ages vary widely, but the team concludes that the age of the Jellyfish Nebula is 8,000 to 9,000 years, while G189.6+3.3 is between 20,000 to 110,000 years old. This means the delay between the explosions could have extended for up to 100,000 years.

In addition, the team conducted computer simulations of a million massive binary systems. They show that systems where the stars orbit close enough to exchange matter and interact during their lives can readily produce dual supernova explosions with similar separations and time delays as those found for the remnants. The team also estimated that the chance of randomly encountering this combination of observed spatial alignment and compatible distances to be less than 1%, strongly supporting a physical association.

“The evidence we’ve compiled — including observations across the spectrum, the chemical and physical properties of the remnants, simulations, and more — paints a compelling picture of a dual supernova event,” said Michailidis.

This study identifies a unique possible example of a binary system where both stars exploded as supernovae and left behind separate, detectable supernova remnants. Astronomers think that most massive stars form in binary or multiple-star systems. The Jellyfish Nebula/G189.6+3.3 complex offers astronomers a rare opportunity to study how massive binary stars evolve, exchange matter, explode, and experience velocity changes — called kicks — induced by the supernova blast. It also provides a powerful new laboratory for understanding how coupled supernova remnants behave, including how they accelerate particles, generate gamma rays, and shape their surrounding environments.

“Fermi’s gamma-ray observations of supernova remnants continue to reveal the dynamic lives of stars,” said Elizabeth Hays, the Fermi project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We can now connect the glowing remains of two massive stars to a powerful pair that evolved together over thousands of years.”

By Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

  •  

NASA’s Fermi Mission Uncovers Possible Sibling Supernova Remnants

6 min read

NASA’s Fermi Mission Uncovers Possible Sibling Supernova Remnants

A new study of two supernova remnants, the debris left behind after stars explode, suggests the explosions came from stellar siblings that once orbited each other. The first star’s detonation sent its binary companion hurtling through space, and then, after traveling for thousands of years, the surviving star blew up too.

Infrared, visible, and ultraviolet image of the area around the Jellyfish Nebula
This multiwavelength scene shows the Jellyfish Nebula supernova remnant (right), the interstellar cloud it’s interacting with, and a distinctive curving filament to its upper left. The filament, which is shown here both in optical and ultraviolet (UV) light, is the visible part of an overlapping supernova remnant, G189.6+3.3, that is more prominent in radio and X-rays. Visible light is shown in yellow, UV from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is shown in violet, and infrared light from NASA’s retired WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) mission appears in cyan, red, and orange. Both remnants are located about 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. The brilliant star at far right is Propus, also known as Eta Geminorum.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Michailidis et al. 2026; optical: DSS; infrared: NASA/WISE/JPL-Caltech/UCLA; ultraviolet: NASA/Swift

“Using 16 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, our analysis uncovered gamma rays associated with a supernova remnant that was hidden in the glare of its neighbor, the Jellyfish Nebula, one of the brightest gamma-ray-emitting supernova remnants known,” said Miltiadis Michailidis, a postdoctoral fellow in the physics department at Stanford University in California. “There are so many striking connections between the two remnants that we conclude they’re likely related, giving us the first known example of a binary system where both stars have undergone supernova explosions.”

Michailidis presented the findings Wednesday at the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California. A paper describing the results will appear in a future edition of Nature Communications.

The study focused on a faint supernova remnant called G189.6+3.3, which is mainly visible in X-rays. It is upstaged by its brighter and better-known neighbor, the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443). The two star wrecks, both located in the constellation Gemini, appear to partially overlap as seen in X-rays. Recent X-ray evidence suggests that hot plasma likely associated with G189.6+3.3 may extend across the entire region, a hint that the overlap may be nearly total.

A massive star explodes when its energy-producing core runs out of fuel and collapses under its own weight, triggering an explosion that blows the star apart. The explosion’s shock wave encloses a hot cloud of debris that rapidly expands into space. So far, astronomers have cataloged about 300 supernova remnants in our galaxy.  

The Fermi mission is part of NASA’s fleet of observatories monitoring the changing cosmos to help humanity better understand how the universe works. More than a decade ago, observations from Fermi’s LAT (Large Area Telescope) showed that the shock waves of supernova remnants accelerated particles to within a fraction of the speed of light, a process first proposed by physicist Enrico Fermi — the mission’s namesake — in 1949.

These high-speed particles, called cosmic rays, interact with interstellar gas to produce gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. Protons make up 99% of cosmic ray particles. To prove that accelerated protons are responsible for the glow, astronomers search for a specific gamma-ray feature. When cosmic-ray protons smash into interstellar gas, they produce a short-lived particle called a neutral pion, which almost immediately decays into a pair of gamma rays. This emission occurs within a specific band of energies associated with the neutral pion’s mass and lies within the range detected by Fermi’s LAT instrument.

In 2013, Fermi observations proved that the Jellyfish Nebula, which is interacting with part of a glowing cloud of hydrogen gas known as Sharpless 249, produced gamma rays through this mechanism. Its neighbor, G189.6+3.3, was discovered in 1994 as part of an X-ray survey by the German-led ROSAT (Roentgen Satellite) mission.

A bright filament of gas lies between the overlapping remnants. New observations of this feature reveal that the shock wave from G189.6+3.3 slammed into dense interstellar gas there and dramatically slowed, key evidence that both remnants are interacting with the same cloud system.

Multiwavelength composite showing high-energy light from the G189 supernova remnant
The well-known supernova remnant IC 443 (right) has an older, fainter neighbor (shown here in blue-green and magenta) called G189.6+3.3. A filament of gas between them, glowing in visible and ultraviolet light (violet arc at center), traces the neighbor’s shock wave and shows that both remnants are interacting with the same molecular cloud, shown in red, orange, brown for infrared and radio data and yellow for visible light. Blue-green shows X-rays from the fainter remnant, while magenta shows gamma rays with energies greater than 10 billion electron volts; for comparison, visible light has energies between about 2 and 3 electron volts. In this view, high-energy light from the much brighter IC 443 has been removed for clarity. Gamma-ray emission near the filament stems from protons accelerated in the supernova’s shock wave as it expands into the cloud.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Michailidis et al. 2026; radio, MWISP and ESA/Planck; infrared: NASA/WISE/JPL-Caltech/UCLA; optical: DSS; ultraviolet: NASA/Swift; X-ray: SRG/eROSITA; gamma ray: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Astronomers think the Jellyfish Nebula is also a candidate PeVatron, a cosmic particle accelerator capable of boosting protons to energies so high they could nearly escape our galaxy. Such particles can produce gamma rays with trillions of times more energy than visible light. Finding a second particle accelerator near the Jellyfish Nebula could offer scientists new clues for how supernova remnants develop into PeVatrons.

“The overlapping remnants, a connecting gas filament, and the availability of data from Fermi and other facilities motivated us to delve into this complex but little-studied region,” said co-author Marianne Lemoine-Goumard, an astrophysicist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) based at the University of Bordeaux. “With Fermi’s LAT instrument, we found gamma-ray emission associated with accelerated protons in the northern part of the fainter remnant. If both remnants are interacting with the same structure, then they must share a common distance from us.”

The team concludes the remnants lie about 6,000 light-years away, their explosion centers are separated by roughly 40 light-years projected onto the plane of the sky, and the original stars may have been 20 or more times the Sun’s mass.

Estimates of the remnants’ ages vary widely, but the team concludes that the age of the Jellyfish Nebula is 8,000 to 9,000 years, while G189.6+3.3 is between 20,000 to 110,000 years old. This means the delay between the explosions could have extended for up to 100,000 years.

In addition, the team conducted computer simulations of a million massive binary systems. They show that systems where the stars orbit close enough to exchange matter and interact during their lives can readily produce dual supernova explosions with similar separations and time delays as those found for the remnants. The team also estimated that the chance of randomly encountering this combination of observed spatial alignment and compatible distances to be less than 1%, strongly supporting a physical association.

“The evidence we’ve compiled — including observations across the spectrum, the chemical and physical properties of the remnants, simulations, and more — paints a compelling picture of a dual supernova event,” said Michailidis.

This study identifies a unique possible example of a binary system where both stars exploded as supernovae and left behind separate, detectable supernova remnants. Astronomers think that most massive stars form in binary or multiple-star systems. The Jellyfish Nebula/G189.6+3.3 complex offers astronomers a rare opportunity to study how massive binary stars evolve, exchange matter, explode, and experience velocity changes — called kicks — induced by the supernova blast. It also provides a powerful new laboratory for understanding how coupled supernova remnants behave, including how they accelerate particles, generate gamma rays, and shape their surrounding environments.

“Fermi’s gamma-ray observations of supernova remnants continue to reveal the dynamic lives of stars,” said Elizabeth Hays, the Fermi project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We can now connect the glowing remains of two massive stars to a powerful pair that evolved together over thousands of years.”

By Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

The post NASA’s Fermi Mission Uncovers Possible Sibling Supernova Remnants appeared first on NASA Science.

  •  

The Amaterasu Particle May Not Be a Proton at All, New Research Suggests


In 2021, scientists detected a cosmic ray entering Earth’s atmosphere with as much kinetic energy as a fast-moving tennis ball, all contained in a single subatomic particle. Named the “Amaterasu particle” after the Japanese sun goddess, the event left researchers questioning its origin because its arrival direction pointed to a region of space with no known source capable of producing such energy.

Researchers at Penn State now suggest that the puzzle may stem more from assumptions about the particle’s composition rather than its missing source.

A recent study in Physical Review Letters suggests that the Amaterasu particle, along with other extremely energetic cosmic rays, may actually be atomic nuclei heavier than iron. If correct, the idea could change how researchers search for the sources of cosmic rays.

A Particle of Unknown Origins

Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays are some of the rarest and most violent phenomena in nature. These particles slam into Earth’s atmosphere with more than 100 exa-electron volts of energy, which is about 10 million times more than what the Large Hadron Collider can produce. The Amaterasu particle, found by the Telescope Array in Utah in May 2021 and reported in Science in 2023, had about 244 exa-electron volts of energy. This makes it one of the most energetic natural events ever recorded.

The mystery extended not only to the particle’s energy, but also to its origin. It came from the direction of the Local Void, which is an almost empty area of space next to the Milky Way, where there is no known source that could create such a powerful particle.

“The origins and acceleration mechanisms of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays have been among the biggest mysteries in the field for more than 60 years, since the first example was reported,” said Kohta Murase, professor of physics and astronomy at Penn State’s Eberly College of Science and the study’s lead researcher.

The Heavy Nucleus Hypothesis

The Penn State team ran computational simulations to study how particles of different masses travel through intergalactic space. They found that atomic nuclei heavier than iron, known as ultraheavy nuclei, lose energy much more slowly than protons or lighter nuclei as they move through the radiation fields of deep space.

Most research on cosmic rays has assumed that the most extreme events involve protons, which are the simplest and lightest atomic nuclei. Ultraheavy nuclei lose energy much more slowly during their journey, allowing them to reach Earth carrying far more energy than lighter particles traveling similar distances. That makes them strong candidates for the most powerful cosmic ray events we’ve seen, including the Amaterasu particle.

“When we detect individual cosmic-ray particles such as the Amaterasu particle here on Earth, we can often use their energies, arrival directions and expected magnetic deflections to infer their possible cosmic sources,” Murase said.

New Theoretical Limits

The hypothesis that these particles are ultraheavy nuclei also changes the range of possible sources. If the particles are indeed heavier nuclei rather than protons, their production would require some of the most extreme environments in the universe. The researchers identify collapsars, which are massive stars collapsing directly into black holes, and binary neutron-star mergers as likely candidates. Both phenomena are also associated with gamma-ray bursts, which are among the most energetic explosions known to science.

The team’s calculations set new theoretical limits on how much ultraheavy nuclei may contribute to the overall population of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. Murase also noted that these sources could help explain a possible asymmetry in the ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray spectrum between the northern and southern hemispheres.

“The most promising sites for producing and accelerating such ultraheavy nuclei are massive star deaths involving explosive collapse into black holes or strongly magnetized neutron stars, as well as binary neutron-star mergers known to be powerful gravitational-wave emitters,” Murase said.

Testing the Idea

The researchers stress that they are not saying all ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays are ultraheavy nuclei, but some of the most extreme ones might be. This could change what scientists look for in future studies. New observatories and upgrades, like AugerPrime in Argentina and the planned Global Cosmic Ray Observatory, could test these ideas. If ultraheavy nuclei are important, future observations should find evidence that protons alone cannot explain.

More than six decades after scientists first detected ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, researchers may finally have a new clue about what the most extreme particles in the universe are made of.

Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a data analytics certification. His work focuses on breaking scientific developments, with an emphasis on emerging biology, cognitive neuroscience, and archaeological discoveries.

  •  

Jupiter Accelerates Electrons to Near-Light Speed, Offering Clues to Cosmic Ray Origins

As planets and stars travel through the streams of charged particles flowing across space, their magnetic fields act like obstacles; incoming particles are slowed and deflected, forming a boundary called the bow shock; just ahead of this boundary lies the foreshock, a variable region where magnetic conditions can accelerate some particles to nearly the speed of light. Image credit: Ben C. Smith, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

The giant planet’s bow shock isn’t just deflecting the solar wind, it’s acting as a powerful particle accelerator, firing electrons to relativistic energies of at least 1 MeV, according to a new analysis of data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

The post Jupiter Accelerates Electrons to Near-Light Speed, Offering Clues to Cosmic Ray Origins appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

  •  

The Amazing Science of Young Earth Creation

Two Part Seminar: Part 1 discusses Young Earth Creation, Earth's magnetic field, and related phenomena. Part 2 presents a new creation model addressing changes in Earth's axial tilt and magnetic field, including a dating of Noah's Flood.

  •  
❌