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The universe hosts a range of extreme entities, ranging from fast radio bursts to supermassive black holes. But scientists consider that the most confusing phenomena are extremely powerful cosmic rays. Cosmic rays consist of atomic nuclei of elements ranging from hydrogen to iron, which trace back to unknown origins up to 98% of the speed of light. Some of these cosmic rays carry so much energy that physicists can not explain what would have created them in the universe.
Cosmic rays are far too powerful to come from the Sun or even from a burgeoning supernova.
Very high frequency cosmic rays reach us with energies 10 million times higher than the particles produced at CERN
And since cosmic rays do not move in a straight line, scientists can not trace their origin.
This means that the answer to the mystery of the cosmic rays could well concern objects that had never been recorded before.
Professor Charles Jui of the University of Utah told Express.co.uk why scientists are increasingly fascinated by these cosmic rays.
He said: "We are interested in these ultra-high frequency cosmic rays because they reach us with energies 10 million times higher than the particles produced by the Large Hadron Collider.
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Cosmic rays: powerful and ubiquitous phenomena are also the most fascinating mystery of the universe (Image: Getty)
Cosmic rays: scientists know more about black holes than cosmic rays (Image: Getty / Express)
"Thus, somewhere in nature, the sun's rays create rays 10 million times more powerful than those we can get on Earth using very large machines.
"Perhaps there is an excellent source of energy that we do not know about and that could provide us with technological help, but it would be very far down the road.
"We really do not know what makes them fast.
"Some theories are plausible, for example, we think that lower energy cosmic rays could come from supernova remnants.
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"These theories are very plausible but we do not have a smoky gun to show that this is happening.
"The whole subject itself is a century old mystery to which we have no answer yet."
Professor Jui thinks that the extreme similarities between cosmic rays and fast radios (FRBs) mean that they could be related.
He said: "Anything that produces as much energy as these fast radio bursts has the potential to have phenomena related to particle mass acceleration.
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Cosmic Rays: Telescope Detection and the Pierre Auger Observatory Experience (Image: Getty)
"The standard scenario for accelerating these particles are theories going back to Enrico Fermi (American-Italian physicist), who said that one could accelerate these particles via shock waves.
"There is a good chance that anything that accelerates these radio waves is a shock.
"When you have shocks like that, you'll also have radio bursts.
"But we do not really know what feeds these radio bursts, which are probably the most violent phenomena we know.
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Cosmic rays: phenomena originate unknown at 98% of the speed of light (Image: Getty)
Cosmic rays: physicists can not explain what would have created them in the universe (Image: Getty)
"So, we do not know if they are linked to these cosmic rays, which are the most energetic rays we know, but one would think that there could be a connection between the two."
Two major experiments are currently devoted to the detection and understanding of cosmic rays: the telescope experiment, covering the northern hemisphere, and the Pierre Auger observatory in Argentina, looking at the southern sky.
And between them, both experiments have found very intriguing clues about the origin of these cosmic rays.
In the northern hemisphere, there is a "hot spot" called the super galactic plane, in the direction of Ursa Major – also known as the Big Dipper.
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In the southern hemisphere, others have seen an intriguing suspicion of cosmic rays from Centaurus A, one of the most violent galaxies in the vicinity of the Earth.
When the particles in the cosmic rays collide with atoms at the top of the atmosphere, they "overlap," says Professor Jui, ripping atoms in a violent collision.
The particles of this explosion then continue to burst other pieces of matter, in a snowball chain reaction.
Cosmic rays penetrate us even into our body, explains the professor of physics and astronomy: "Very energetic particles pass through you, depositing only a very small amount of energy."
Cosmic Rays: A Photomicrograph Shows Where High Energy Electrons Flamed Through a Film Emulsion (Image: NASA / Marshall Space Flight Center / University of Alabama)
Despite the heavy task of breaking through the greatest mysteries of the universe, Professor Jui is optimistic.
He said: "I am sure that in the next 10 to 15 years there will be progress.
"The problem we're having right now is really not whether we're going to do it, it's really a matter of building big, expensive projects.
"And in addition, even with powerful instruments, data collection will take a long time."
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