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Hunting the strongest accelerators in our Galaxy

Twelve candidates for the most powerful astrophysical particle accelerators in the Milky Way have been detected. This advance will help to uncover the nature of these exotic objects.
  1. Petra Huentemeyer

    1. Petra Huentemeyer is at the Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences Institute, Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan 49931, USA.

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What are the most powerful particle accelerators in our Galaxy, and how many of them are out there? Given what is already known about the Milky Way, it is perhaps surprising to hear that scientists are still not entirely sure. In a paper in Nature, the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) Collaboration1 reports the detection of an unprecedented number of candidates for such accelerators, signalling the advent of a new era in very-high-energy astrophysics.

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Nature 594, 30-31 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01377-1

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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