Seeing cosmic rays

In this week's Nature, Yasunobu Uchiyama and colleagues from the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan report the discovery of a brightening and decay in the X-ray emitting shells around a supernova.

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VOL.449 NO.7162 DATED 04 OCTOBER 2007

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Seeing cosmic rays (pp 576-578)

Pictures of varying X-ray hot spots in a supernova remnant have enabled scientists to see Galactic cosmic rays being accelerated.

Galactic cosmic rays are high-energy charged particles that are believed to be accelerated by the shock waves generated as supernova ejecta expand into the interstellar medium. In this week's Nature, Yasunobu Uchiyama and colleagues report the discovery of a brightening and decay in the X-ray emitting shells around a supernova. This phenomenon could only be caused by a synchrotron process, accelerating electrons through magnetic fields that have been compressed and amplified by more than a hundredfold.

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Yasunobu Uchiyama (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Kanagawa, Japan)
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Published: 03 Oct 2007

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