Tracking Amaterasu: Origins of the Sun Goddess Cosmic Ray
Scientists are probing Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess–named ultra-high-energy cosmic ray detected on Earth, to pinpoint its origin. As the second-most energetic cosmic ray observed, Amaterasu may arise from nearby star-forming environments such as the galaxy M82 rather than solely from the Local Void; researchers used a data-driven approach with Approximate Bayesian Computation to map probable source regions, with results published in The Astrophysical Journal on Jan. 28.