What is an ultra -high energy cosmic ray?
Space rays are subatomical particles flying space at high speed in all directions. About 90% of them are protons, 9% are helium cores and 1% are electrons. Unlike their names, the space rays are more energy particles than rays. On the ground we can detect space rays when it collides with the upper atmosphere and release the shower of charged particles. By observing how intense the particle shower is, we can deduce the energy and direction of the cosmic beam.
The ultra -high energy space ray (UHECR) is a type of space beam with unusually high energy. There is no official limit limit defining an ultra-high energy ray, but this term generally concerns the cosmic rays that are approaching or exceeding the limit of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) on the space energy of the beams. The GZK limit corresponds to the threshold energy of 6 x 10
19 Electronvolts, about ten million times energy than particles in the strongest accelerators partC.Nad This limit is assumed that the cosmic rays interact with the cosmic microwave background to form exotic particles called pions, thus reducing their energy to the GZK limit.
But space rays exceeding the GZK limit were observed. This is the secret of physics and may be a hint of physical theories that will replace Einstein, according to recognized physicists such as Lee Smolin. One such cosmic beam observed on Dugway showing the soil in Utah and nicknamed OH-MY-God, had energy about 3 x 10
20 Electronvolty. This is roughly equivalent to a well-thrown baseball-we are talking about a particle smaller than a typical atomic core. It is estimated that this particle traveled at about 1-5 x 10
Since the discovery of the OH-MY-BOHA particle in 1991, at least fifteen similar events have been recorded, as evidenced that cosmic rays with ultra-high energy are a real phenomenon. Because such particles are so energetic, it is unlikely that they would be affected by magnetic fields of galaxies, so they would probably travel in a straight line from their origin. However, nothing was found in the direction of the sky, where the space ray was created. Why is that? We don't know.