Supernova Remnant Acts as a Particle Accelerator
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Instead of investing in particle accelerators here on Earth, physicists might consider just blowing up a few stars. New images taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory show how supernova remnant Cassiopeia A acts as a natural particle accelerator, firing out cosmic rays. As particles move around the remnant, they’re accelerated by the tremendous magnetic fields, eventually nearing the speed of light. The images from Chandra show that the particles are being accelerated to the maximum rate predicted by theories.Read more @ Universe Today.
Note from the Nerd: This is interesting, but I don't really see how scientists plan to harness this power of supernovas, Or are they even going to? Nevertheless, a very interesting observation about, shall we say, the 'nature' or supernovas.