LHASA, March 16 (Xinhua) — A high-altitude cosmic ray observatory in southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region has supplied scientists with an unprecedented take a look at the invisible forces governing our galaxy.
The Tibet AS experiment has efficiently measured chaotic magnetic turbulence on a really small scale in house for the primary time, revealing new particulars about how cosmic rays journey by way of the Milky Way.
The findings, just lately revealed within the journal Science Advances, give attention to Geminga, a useless star — referred to as a pulsar — positioned about 800 light-years from Earth.
Using a large detector array at Yangbajing in Xizang, the worldwide staff of Chinese and Japanese scientists studied a halo of high-energy mild surrounding this pulsar. They achieved this by observing gamma rays with energies exceeding 100 tera-electron volts (TeV) — way more highly effective than something produced by human-made particle accelerators.
“The research provides the first direct evidence that the Geminga pulsar wind nebula accelerates electrons only up to a specific energy limit of about 100 TeV,” stated Huang Jing, a professor from the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Moreover, the staff measured how these particles unfold into house. They found that within the area across the Geminga halo, particle diffusion is surprisingly sluggish. Cosmic rays are shifting by way of this space with solely about one % of the effectivity they’ve in the remainder of the galaxy. It is as if the particles are encountering a cosmic “speed bump” or a thick fog that slows their escape.
Moreover, for the primary time, scientists had been capable of measure the turbulence of magnetic fields on extremely small scales — lower than a single parsec (about 3.3 light-years). They discovered that this turbulence follows a selected sample, referred to as Kolmogorov-type scaling, which has similarities to how vitality strikes in a stirred cup of espresso or in atmospheric climate patterns.
“This is the first experimental confirmation that such magnetic turbulence exists on such tiny scales in space,” stated Huang.
The findings are a serious step ahead in understanding cosmic rays. By finding out how they’re trapped and slowed round objects like Geminga, scientists can higher perceive the complicated “weather” of house and the magnetic fields that form our galactic neighborhood, stated Bi Xiaojun, a professor from the IHEP.
The Tibet AS experiment, positioned 4,300 meters above sea stage in Xizang’s Yangbajing Town, has been working since 1990. Its distinctive underground detectors block out 99.92 % of undesirable background noise.
“The success of this observation opens new doors for understanding cosmic-ray propagation and magnetic-field dynamics in the universe. The findings are expected to have far-reaching implications for future multi-messenger and high-energy gamma-ray studies,” stated Fang Kun, an knowledgeable from IHEP.