Evidence emerges that intense stellar explosions send high-energy protons hurtling through the galaxy
Remnants of two supernovas have provided the best proof yet that supernova shock waves churn out the high-energy protons that whizz through the galaxy.
Many of these speedy protons, better known as cosmic rays, have more energy than those in any manmade particle accelerator. Astronomers spent four years probing W44, the remains of a supernova located about 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Aquila, and another remnant called IC 433, located roughly 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Gemini, with NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The scope picked up a steady stream of gamma radiation at energies that could only have come from a nuclear reaction