6 APRIL 2021 A cosmic gamma ray detected zipping across the Milky Way has broken the record for the most energetic we've found yet, clocking in at a whopping 957 trillion electronvolts (teraelectronvolts, or TeV).
This not only more than doubles the previous record, it brings us close to the range of petaelectronvolts (that's a quadrillion electronvolts) - finally confirming the existence of cosmic superaccelerators that can boost photons to these energies in the Milky Way. Such a superaccelerator is called a PeVatron, and finding them could help us figure out what is producing the high-energy gamma rays streaking across the galaxy. "This pioneering work opens a new window for the exploration of the extreme Universe," said physicist Jing Huang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China. "The observational evidence marks an important milestone toward revealing cosmic ray origins, which have puzzled mankind for more than one century."