An observatory high in the mountains of Mexico has recorded repeated emission of some of the highest-energy gamma rays ever recorded from a single point close to the galactic center.
Terzan 5 star cluster is a copious producer of cosmic rays, because it contains a large population of rapidly rotating, incredibly dense and magnetised millisecond pulsars – which accelerate cosmic rays up to extremely high speeds.
The energy of these gamma rays clocked in at 20 tera-electronvolts, or about ten trillion times the energy of visible light.
The international team behind the discovery also found that this type of light, known as gamma rays, is surprisingly bright. That is, there's more of it than scientists had previously anticipated.
Researchers have observed a gamma-ray burst with an afterglow that featured the highest energy photons -- a trillion times more energetic than visible light - ever detected in a burst.
Recent U.S. study suggests how surveys using gamma telescopes could find evidence of spacecraft powered by tiny artificial black holes. The concept of a black hole-powered spacecraft was first introduced by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke.
For the first time, an international collaboration of scientists has detected highly energetic light coming from the outermost regions of an unusual star system within our own galaxy.
