VUB finds 'gigantic particle accelerator' in Milky Way

The Milky Way galaxy seems to contain a gigantic particle accelerator, probably in the form of an enormous star. That is the discovery of a research team at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), led by astrophysicist Stijn Buitink. Their findings are published in the science magazine Nature.

The cosmos is full of flying objects, from comets to elementary particles, and some particles possess an energy that is a million times stronger than the largest particle accelerator on Earth. Scientists generally believed that they came from sources very far away, like black holes in other galaxies.

The VUB researchers, in collaboration with the Dutch Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, have now found that there are also particles with such extreme energy produced in the Milky Way, the galaxy that contains our solar system.

“We think our galaxy contains a very powerful particle accelerator, most likely in the form of a gigantic star,” said professor Buitink in a statement. The particles travel through the universe at about the speed of light, until they hit the Earth’s atmosphere and shatter into numerous smaller particles. Through interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field, this process causes a very short flash.

The scientists measured flashes with the European radio telescope LOFAR and ascertained the causes of the impacts. In most cases, the cause is a single proton or a light atomic nucleus, coming from hydrogen or helium atoms. According to the scientists, the particles could form excellent research material for further research into particle physics.

Photo: Galaxy NGC 6744, which scientists believe resembles the Milky Way