Posted on 07/13/2021 11:44:03 AM PDT by Red Badger
The significance map of LHAASO J0341+5258 above 25 TeV. The green circle marks the position of 4FGL J0340.4+5302, and the blue cross marks the position of the pulsar PSR J0343+5312. Credit: Cao et al., 2021.
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Astronomers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and elsewhere report the detection of a new ultra-high energy (UHE) gamma-ray source in the Galactic plane. The newly identified source, designated LHAASO J0341+5258, is extended and emission from it reaches up to 200 TeV. The finding is detailed in a paper published July 5 on arXiv.org.
Sources emitting gamma radiation with photon energies between 100 GeV and 100 TeV are called very-high energy (VHE) gamma-ray sources, while those with photon energies above 0.1 PeV are known as ultra-high energy (UHE) gamma-ray sources. The nature of these sources is still not well understood; therefore, astronomers are constantly searching for new objects of this type to characterize them, which could shed more light on their properties in general.
Now, a team of astronomers led by Zhen Cao of CAS has found a new source of this type using China's Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). LHAASO J0341+5258 was detected during an obervational campaign between December 2019 and November 2020.
"Since December 2019, the half of LHAASO-KM2A experiment has monitored the sky in the declination band from -15 degrees to 75 degrees above tens of TeV with high duty cycle. An excess with a pre-trial significance of 8.2σ was detected from the direction of LHAASO J0341+5258 using events with energy above 25 TeV," the researchers wrote in the paper.
The observations found that LHAASO J0341+5258 is an extended source with angular size of approximately 0.29 degrees. The gamma-ray emission from this source reaches values of nearly 200 TeV (0.2 PeV).
The results show that the integrated energy flux of gamma-ray emissions for LHAASO J0341+5258 above 25 TeV accounts for about 20 percent of the flux from the Crab Nebula. The astronomers added that energy spectrum of this source can be described by a power-law, even though there is a hint of curvature at around 50 TeV.
Furthermore, it was found that LHAASO J0341+5258 is positionally coincident with a known GeV gamma-ray source 4FGL J0340.4+5302. Therefore, the researchers assume that both sources may have a unified origin.
Summing up the results, the authors of the paper noted that LHAASO J0341+5258 could be an extended emission of a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) and/or a pulsar halo. However, the challenge of this scenario is the lack of a reported powerful pulsar.
"Interestingly, such a pulsar could be the gamma-ray source 4FGL J0340.4+5302 with a characteristic spectrum below 1 GeV. The detection of pulsed radio emission from this source would support the IC [inverse Compton] origin of the UHE gamma-ray emission," the scientists explained.
They added that hadronic origin of the UHE emission from LHAASO J0341+5258 can be interpreted as an 'echo' from molecular clouds. This is the result of interactions of protons with dense gas regions in the proximity of an old supernova remnant.
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New ultra-high energy gamma-ray source detected More information: Discovery of a new γ-ray source LHAASO J0341+5258 with emission up to 200TeV, arXiv:2107.02020 [astro-ph.HE]
arxiv.org/abs/2107.02020
That was just me digesting the giant brick of lasagna I had for lunch.
Sorry...
God f arted. That’s all
Cool!
>>On Gamma Ray Burst of this magnitude would kill everything on Earth in an instant.................
<<
Or make them all Hulks
Back during the ‘Neutron Bomb’ debate in the 70’s, I remember a demonstration film from an Army weapons lab.
They had a monkey in front of a machine that would produce a gamma ray burst like a flash from a camera via some iris type opening.
They triggered the device and the monkey just fell over dead.........................
This is from the Chinese?
It’s called a flash bulb.
That would be a FRASH BUB...................
Oh, you are going straight to h e double hockey sticks for that one!
And no fortune cookie!
I give him a 7 for that dive.
He did a back flip! That should be at least a 8.5!..................
Excellent...
“But I drive a Tesla and recycle my latte cups so I’m safe...”
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