Nov 21 1995
From The Space Library
An international team of scientists have examined data from the Japanese/U.S. X-ray astronomical satellite "ASCA" which may confirm how cosmic rays achieve speeds near the speed of light. Enrico Fermi suggested a theory in 1949 in which charged particles are bounced between turbulent regions inside the shock front of a supernova explosion. Bouncing much like a ping pong ball between a table and a paddle as the paddle is brought closer to the table, a charged particle gains energies up to 100 trillion electron volts. The tell-tale clue to the discovery was the detection of two oppositely-located regions in the rapidly expanding remnant of the Supernova of 1006 AD. The ASCA satellite contains telescopes for simultaneously taking images and spectra of X-rays, allowing astronomers to distinguish between different types of X-ray emission from nearby regions of the same celestial object. ASCA was launched February 20, 1993. (NASA Release 95-208)
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