What is the OMG particle?

Find out why experts are confused by this particle

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Showers of high energy particles occur when energetic cosmic rays strike the top of the Earth's atmosphere

Showers of high energy particles occur when energetic cosmic rays strike the top of the Earth’s atmosphere

An ultra-high-energy cosmic ray quickly became known as the Oh-My-God particle, or OMG for short, when it streaked – very close to the speed of light – into the path of the sensitive antenna of the University of Utah’s Fly’s Eye Cosmic Ray Detector back in 1991. To say astrophysicists were shocked, is an understatement. What could the explanation behind a cosmic ray of incredible energy – comparable to 40 million times that of the highest energy particles that have ever been made in a particle accelerator – be?

Experts think that the cosmic ray takes the form of a rare high energy proton and, while the same phenomena has been witnessed on at least fifteen separate occasions, its energy – that’s about 20 million times more energetic than radiation spewed by extragalactic objects – has left us still scratching our heads

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