It has been seen by telescopes since 2007, but it wasn't until 2020 that it was picked up by the HAWC Observatory in Mexico. A shower of charged particles can be measured by telescopes on the ground. Scientists were able to work backwards and find out that the showers came from the remnants of the supernova. They couldn't say if the light was generated by protons or electrons or if it was a combination of the two.
The data collected by 10 different observatories over the past decade was used to prove that PeV protons were the culprit. They decided to use computer simulations. The researchers tried to reproduce the conditions necessary to account for all the different wavelength of light they had observed by tweaking different values. They couldn't be the only source. If PeV protons were added to the data, their simulations would match the highest energy data.
The spectrum we got out just wouldn't match the observations so we were able to exclude that emission. The only way to explain the full spectrum of light was with the presence, Fleischhack says, because doing a multi wavelength analysis allowed them to show that increasing the number of electrons at one wavelength led to a mismatch between data and simulation at another wavelength.
David Saltzberg is an astronomer at the University of California Los Angeles who was not involved in the work. You need a lot of experiments and observatories to answer the big questions.
If more PeVatrons are found, they will be able to figure out if this discovery is unique or if all stellar corpses have the ability to speed up particles to such speeds. She says this could be the start of something bigger. PeVatrons may be able to be found beyond our own galaxy with the help of instruments like the Cherenkov Telescope array.
Saltzberg thinks that next- generation experiments should be able to see the neutral particles that come from supernova remnants. If these sites are found with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, it would be a sign that they are Pe Vatrons. neutrinos are clean probes of protons interactions and they cannot be made by electrons, so it will be great if telescopes like Ice cube can see them directly from the sources.
It's important to find the PeVatrons of our universe to understand how the relics of stellar death pave the way for new stars to be born. Cosmic rays affect pressure and temperature, drive winds, and ionize molecule in star-fertile regions. One day, some of those stars may form their own planets or explode into supernovas, starting the process all over again.
Kerr says that studying the origins of life is more important than studying exoplanets. There is an energetic system that is very complex. We are just now coming to comprehend it.
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