Record particle accelerator discovered in the heart of the Crab Nebula

Chinese and Japanese astronomers have detected the most powerful gamma rays recorded up to now after an explosion that occurred 1,000 years ago.

Astronomers celebrated the discovery of the highest energy cosmic gamma rays ever observed in space, by neutralizing all others detected until now. The rays observed by the Tibet ASgamma telescope ranged from 100 teraelectron volts (TeV) to around 450 TeV. In comparison, the highest energy ever observed before for a gamma-ray photon was 75 TeV, thanks to the HEGRA Cherenkov telescope.

The researchers behind the Chinese and Japanese joint project believe that the powerful gamma rays were produced by the interaction between very high energy electrons and cosmic microwave background radiation produced by the Big Bang.

They were located in a region of space known as the Crab Nebula, a famous remnant of the constellation Taurus's supernova, located about 6,500 light-years away. It was formed in 1054 after a supernova explosion and was so powerful that it was observed by Chinese and Japanese scholars at the time.

In an attempt to determine what could have produced such rays, the researchers – whose work was published for Letters of physical examination – believe it to be the most powerful and natural particle accelerator discovered to date in our galaxy.

The work of astronomers probably opens a new path for the exploration of the extreme universe. The detection of gamma rays above 100 TeV is a key to understanding the origin of very high energy cosmic rays, a mystery since their discovery in 1912.

With other observations using this powerful telescope, they hope to find the origin of cosmic rays in our galaxy, namely PeVatrons (PeV), which accelerate the cosmic rays up to PeV energies.

"This is the first [detection], but a big step forward, "said Professor Huang Jing, co-spokesperson of Tibet ASgamma experience.

"This proves that our techniques have worked well and that gamma rays with energy up to a few hundred TeVs actually exist. Our goal is to identify a large number of PeVatrons, which have not yet been discovered and which are supposed to produce the most energetic cosmic rays in our galaxy. "