[ExI] black holes make cosmic rays

[Damien Broderick]

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1693


The origin of these rays has remained mysterious 
since they were first discovered by Auger in the 
1930s. Astrophysicists had predicted that Active 
Galactic Nuclei (AGN) – the violent supermassive 
black holes found at the centre of some galaxies 
– could be the source, but there was no evidence to prove this.

Now, experts from 17 countries, have used the 
newly constructed Pierre Auger Observatory in 
Malargue, Argentina, to pinpoint AGN as the 
likely source of the highest-energy cosmic rays hitting Earth.

The team of scientists used particle detectors 
and fluorescence telescopes to reveal that 
high-energy cosmic rays do not come equally from 
all directions. Furthermore, they found that the 
likely origins of the 27 highest energy events 
correlated well with clustering of the known 
locations of 381 AGN in nearby galaxies.
etc