The observatory has recorded the highest energy photon of 1.4 Peta electron volts (PeV). This is the highest energy level ever observed, changing people’s traditional understanding of the Milky Way.
A large number of ultra-high energy cosmic accelerators have also been discovered in the Milky Way by the cosmic ray observatory, and an era of “ultra-high-energy gamma astronomy” has started, according to a joint press conference held by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Springer Nature on Monday, according to The Paper.
These discoveries started the era of ultra-high energy gamma astronomy, indicating that non-thermal radiating objects represented by the Cygnus star-forming region and the Crab Nebula – that is, young massive star clusters, supernova remnants and pulsar wind clouds – are the best candidates for the origin of high-energy cosmic rays, helping to solve the "mystery of the century" of the origin of cosmic rays.
Ultra-high energy gamma astronomy, in which the energy exceeds 10 to the power of 14 electronic volts, is the last and the highest energy electromagnetic radiation window in the universe observed by human beings so far.
The detection of ultra-high energy gamma rays has always been a great challenge, as the amount of the rays is very small and they are submerged in the huge cosmic ray background, according to an explanation from the CAS on the Guancha news website.
The Large High-Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), is located in the mountains of the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at an altitude of 4,410 meters, and is a major part of the national scientific and technological infrastructure to observe and study cosmic rays.
The article was originally published on The Global Times