A rare, extremely energetic cosmic ray has mysterious origins
Efforts to find the particle’s birthplace led scientists to a mostly empty void in space
![An illustration of a shower of particles in Earth's atmosphere produced by a cosmic ray. Detectors on the ground spot the particles in the shower.](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/112123_ec_cosmic-ray_feat-1.jpg?fit=1030%2C580&ssl=1)
When cosmic rays hit Earth’s atmosphere, they create a shower of other particles (illustrated) that can be spotted with detectors on the ground (colored dots).
Osaka Metropolitan University/L-INSIGHT, Kyoto University/Ryuunosuke Takeshige